England Deaf Squad announced
The England Cricket Association for the Deaf and the ECB have announced a 14-man squad to take on Pakistan in two Test matches, three one-day internationals and a Charity 20/20 spectacular in August this year.
The matches will take place in Essex and Kent over a two-week period between August 6-20.
The England Team recently reached the Final of the World Deaf Cup in November of last year before losing to hosts India, who incidentally beat Pakistan in the first semi-final.
England had beaten the previous World Champions Australia in the second semi-final.
Both England and Pakistan were disappointed to lose to an Indian team who did not appear to have the strength on paper, however used home conditions to their advantage and performed exceptionally well to win both games rather convincingly.
The games therefore promise to be extremely exciting as two of the top cricket teams of deaf and hard of hearing players seek to bounce back from their disappointments.
England boast a number of players with County 2nd XI and Minor Counties experience, while the Pakistan Team have at least three first class cricketers in their ranks.
The England Squad
- Umesh Valjee (captain) - Middlesex
- Mike O'Mahony (vice-captain) - Surrey
- Chris Hughes - Warwickshire
- Stefan Pichowski - Northamptonshire
- Stephen George - Devon
- Luke Newton - Norfolk
- Mohammed Farooq - Middlesex
- Ben Young - Durham
- Blyth Duncan - Northumberland
- Paul Allen - Cheshire
- James Dixon - Lancashire
- Nigel Davenport - Warwickshire
- Darrell Sykes - Yorkshire
- Andy Wood - Yorkshire
Standby
- Jeffrey Kan - Middlesex
- Matthew Everett - Essex
- Ross MacCauliffe - Hampshire
Officials
- Head Coach - Ron Young
- Team Manager - Jeff Levick
- Assistant Team Manager - Blyth Duncan senior
- Interpreter - Sula Gleeson
- Team Physiotherapist - Kate Peckham
- Team Scorer - Mike Rose
The Match Programme
- August 7 - Training - Gidea Park
- August 8 - 1st One Day International -Gidea Park
- August 9-11 - 1st Test Match - Gidea Park
- August 13 - 2nd One Day International - UK Paper Sittingbourne
- August 14 - Rest day
- August 15-17 - 2nd Test Match - UK Paper Sittingbourne
- August 18 - 20/20 - UK Paper Sittingbourne
- August 19 - Rest day
- August 20 - 3rd One Day International - UK Paper Sittingbourne
