England players off to secret destination

Friday, June 26, 2009 -- The English pre-Ashes cricket squad will be off to a secret destination for a team bonding exercise before the start of the all-important Ashes. All the 16 players who were chosen in the squad have been asked to report to Birmingham with their passports and from there they will be flown to an undisclosed overseas destination!

It has also been reported that the actual destination will be undisclosed to the media for now, in order to allow the players to unwind without prying cameras or media-men around them.

it has been said that this is in line with the unconventional methods that the newly appointed consultant of the English team, John Buchanan, has practiced over the period of his association as the Australian cricket team coach as well, having taken them for a bootcamp and to Gallipoli in 2001 and the Somme in 2005.
The English team then will take on Warwickshire on Wednesday in a three day fixture which will serve as a warm-up game for them, while the Australian team will play their second practice game against the English Lions at Worcester.

In team news, the English test captain, Andrew Strauss will be back at the helm after being away from the team during the ICC World T20, and so will Monty Panesar, who has been chosen in the pre-squad. Rather surprisingly, this squad has three spinners, including Graeme Swann and the youngster Adil Rashid.
Andrew Flintoff, who had been out of the squad, ever since the first couple of games that he played in the IPL will make a return soon, as would the injured Kevin Pietersen.

The first Ashes test will begin from the 8th of July at Cardiff.