The Spanish men’s national team will start their 2023 calendar with a six match T20I series against the Isle of Man. The games will take place from Friday 24th of Feb to Sunday 26th February at the La Manga resort in Murcia.
Start times will be 10.00 am and 14.15 pm on Friday and Saturday and 09.30 am and 13.45 pm on the Sunday. National men’s coach said on confirmation of the series ” Firstly thank you to Greig and Isle of Man for agreeing to this 6 match International T20 series. What a brilliant way to kickstart our 2023 campaign. 2022 was a big development year for us at cricket Spain and I know the new group will be looking forward to continuing our growth and development this year.
It promises to be a great series with both teams ranked 36th and 39th respectively, which I’m sure will offer both teams some high level contests. Also thank you to La Manga Club for allowing us to host the series”.
His counterpart from the Isle of Man, Greig Wright added ” The bilateral IT20’s with Spain in La Manga are an indication of how cricket is moving forward. Playing international matches in February wouldn’t be something we would be scheduling historically, but the opportunities to organise matches all year round and the weather in other European countries allow the players regular competitive opportunities. We have been training all year round for 2 years now so the players are regularly hitting balls indoors and have been looking good over the winter.
After our successful efforts in the WCQ in Finland in July the lads are keen to get back playing and to be playing another country ranked in the 30’s is a great test and one we are relishing”.
The fifteen man playing squad for Spain will include debutant Ali Syed Shafaat who impressed in the winter ECS tournament in Barcelona with Hira Sabadell. Coach Rutgers was visibly impressed and stated, ” He caught my eye during the last ECS Barcelona event. He is a dangerous left arm swing bowler and dangerous lower order batsman whose performances have been rewarded with a National team call up”.
Other Cataluyna players in the set-up are the vice captain Yasir Ali, Hamza Dar, Muhammad Ihsan, Muhammad Yasi, Awais Ahmed, Prince Dhiman, Muhammad Kamran, and Raja Adeel. Lorne Burns is the sole representative from the South region, whilst captain Chris Munoz-Mills and Atif Mehmood are the Sporting Alfas contingent.
The hosts will take special interest in the performances of Ravi Panchal and Charlie Rumisterwicz, who learned their cricket at La Manga, and the top order batsmen Daniel Doyle-Calle rounds off the playing group. The South African born cricketer, whose mother is Spanish, recently signed professional terms for Hermes DVS of Schiedam, and will be spending the majority of the European cricket season in Holland. The squad is capped off with coach Corey and Alastair Priddle once again will be the strength and conditioning coach.
Similar faces remain from the previous year, with a lot of those players making their international debuts in 2022. With playing time now in the locker Rutgers will be looking for further develoipment in the 2023 season.
