Kirtley savours thriving Pro ARCH

James Kirtley is showing his entrepreneurial side as Pro ARCH event co-founder

It seems the United Arab Emirates is the place to be at the moment, with England embarking on a short trip ahead of the Test series against India, and six county sides choosing it as their destination of choice for their pre-season warm-ups.

The Emirates Airline Pro ARCH cricket tours to the UAE, dreamt up by Sussex seamer James Kirtley, are going from strength to strength with more and more people wanting to be involved.

What started as a trip for Sussex and Essex in 2007, blossomed into a six-team tournament in 2008 and will feature eight teams in 2009.

Sussex and Essex have been mainstays, and are being joined next year by reigning champions Yorkshire, Twenty20 Cup holders Middlesex, Lancashire and Surrey. There will also be a team from the UAE represented, and a special Fly Emirates side backed by the new sponsors of the venture.

Tournament director Matthew Jackson said: “Involving local sides is very much part of our ethos and what we are about.

“We have invested in facilities along with the Emirates Cricket Board and the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council.

“These are paying dividends with the England cricket team flying out today to use the same facilities as the teams will be using.

It is not just the full county sides which are benefiting either, with three separate cricket tournaments being run under the Emirates Airline ARCH Trophy banner.

“In just 10 days time we have a county academy tour running,” Jackson confirmed. “We have the Yorkshire academy, Sussex academy, Glamorgan academy, Guernsey and the UAE Under-19s playing in a tournament in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.

“In February we have a schools tournament – English schools going out to play UAE schools.”

The Emirates Airline Pro ARCH county tournament itself is based around the 50-over format and will be played between 17-25 March 2009.

Essex Eagles players celebrate James Middlebrook taking Iain Sutcliffe's wicket in Sharjah last year

Surrey are one of the new sides to have signed up this year, and captain Mark Butcher is looking forward to getting out there.

“It gives us a great opportunity to go away and get some competitive matches in terrific conditions pre-season,” he admitted.

“We will be in a position where we will be having several new players and a new coach and it is a good opportunity to get away from the every day drudgery of coming to the Oval, perhaps, and getting out in a different environment where we can get to know one another and bond as a team.

“Then, hopefully, when we come back, we can hit the ground running.”

Kirtley, who was instrumental in setting up the whole initiative, is excited about the way it has taken off.

“It is hugely exciting to play at some fantastic venues, to play some competitive cricket where you know the opposition and the standard of cricket you are going to be playing,” he said.

“One of the things coaches forget about, or worry about, is the standard of the opposition in pre-season. That is crucial.

“They say it was my brainchild, but basically I was working with Matthew and I said to him that a pre-season tour to the UAE would be brilliant.

“When you are a player and you are organising it for your colleagues and your peers, well, if it went badly, I would be hiding. They would be my harshest critics.

“But to have a project, and to actually do it, that proves successful and proves beneficial, with the teams involved being successful the following year, serves testament to what we are doing in the UAE.”