Head coach Ripley pleased with pre-season preparations as Northants jet off to Singapore

The County squad jetted off to Singapore for an 11-day training camp on Monday.

Northants will be netting and practising all week, before playing two T20 matches against their hosts, the Singapore Cricket Club on Monday.

They then have a two-day inter-squad game to round off the trip, before returning home.

“All of our guys who are fit and available will take part over those two days, and we will be joined by a couple of local players to make that work,” said head coach Ripley.

“There will be three two-hour sessions in the sun on both days, and it is a chance to bat a session for our batters, and for our bowlers to get that red ball in their hand in a match situation.

“I am very happy with what we have got planned.

“We have had more competitive cricket than this on occasions, but we have had a tighter lead up.

“This year, when we come back we have got three days in Nottingham, three days in Derby, then the University game and then we are into the season.

“It means there is a nice amount of cricket for us there to adjust to English conditions, sharpen the pencil on selections, and just make sure we are in the best place we can be by the time the first ball of the season is bowled.”

Northants’ players have been hard at work since November last year, but aside from a few players that travelled abroad to get some cricket in, it has been a long, hard winter at the County Ground.

And Ripley says the trip to Singapore is a great chance for his team to get out and familiar with playing on grass again.

“It is about that transition to getting outdoors,” said the head coach.

“I am looking out over the ground as I speak to you, and the it is bathed in sunshine, and the covers areon.

“By the time we get back from Singapore we will hopefully get some cricket out on the square.

“With the Singapore trip under our belts, you are going to be able to get a good month’s worth of cricket before that first game of the season, and it is how the modern game is now.

“I was at the Oval last week, and they had a big marquee over an end of their square, with four wickets in use. They had been in there training since the end of February, and that is one way of doing it.

“We can’t quite manage to do it that way, but it is nice to get away anyway, to get off site.

“A change of venue will be good, because we have been coming into the County Ground all winter, and that is part of the trip.

“We have new players so it is a chance to get to know them, and we have two new members of coaching staff as well, and it is just a new environment to the working one we have had.

“The question mark about us going to Singapore (due to the coronavirus outbreak) has been a bit of a cloud over it, but things have settled there and now we have made the decision to go then we are all looking forward to that cricket element.”

The players have been honing their skills and getting their eye in at the excellent indoor school at the County Ground, but Ripley admitted: “There is nothing like getting out there on grass.

“The indoor school is the next best thing we have got, but it is not like an early season English wicket, when there is a little bit of nibble, and the bowlers have got to make sure they bowl the right length.

“So it is a just a little bit of an adjuster.

“We talk about it a lot when we are indoors, but if the batters keep throwing their hands through and whacking it, then naturally the bowlers can find themselves bowling a yard or two short for where they want.

“It is all about adjusting, making sure people are behind the line, having an umpire standing there, it is just a transition without being under too much pressure when you first get out there.

“It gives the players a chance to find their way over the 10 days or so we are there, and all of the players are looking forward to it.”

The whole squad has flown out to Singapore, with the exception of the injured Gareth Berg, who is set to have a hernia operation, and red-ball skipper Adam Rossington, who is staying at home for family reasons.