By Jon Steer
February 16 2005

Most years, the story is the same - preseason practice matches fall foul to the weather and little or no real practice is gained by anyone other than the ground staff. Well this season Durham have tried to guarantee good weather with a preseason tour to the UAE. The tour party will leave for Dubai on 25th March and return on the 7th April. Moxon has said that there will be four one day matches against the UAE as well as a two day practice game between themselves. The first match of the season starts on 13th April against Leicestershire and the squad needs to be better prepared than last season when bad weather disrupted the lead up to the season. Durham Chief Executive David Harker said, "The Club has invested in this tour as a means to enable the squad to prepare for the forthcoming season with the reduced risk of training being disrupted due to inclement weather, as has happened in previous years."

The only absentee from the tour party will be the new captain Mike Hussey, due to international commitments he will not arrive in the UAE until the second week of the tour. His involvement in the tour could be further called into question if he is selected for the test series against New Zealand that follows the current one day tour.

Durham squad to tour UAE, 25th March - 7th April:

Dale Benkenstein
Graeme Bridge
Gareth Breese
Kyle Coetzer
Paul Collingwood
Mark Davies
Stephen Harmison
Gavin Hamilton
Michael Hussey
Neil Killeen
Jon Lewis
James Lowe
Gordon Muchall
Philip Mustard
Graham Onions
Nicky Peng
Liam Plunkett
Andrew Pratt
Gary Pratt
Callum Thorp
Mark Turner