Kent’s Adam Riley has admitted that it is “amazing” that Worcestershire’s New Road ground is ready for when the sides meet on April 13.

The ground, as it has been in many previous years, was seriously affected by the floods in the earlier part of the year. But, having been under water just a matter of weeks and months ago, New Road is now in a more than playable condition for when the sides meet on April 13, in what will be Kent’s first County Championship game of 2014 and Worcestershire’s first home encounter of their campaign.

Riley admitted, however, that the track may not be particularly suited to his off-spin bowling.

“I think I’ve written that one off!” he joked.

“It’s amazing what happens at Worcester, because you’ll get there on April 13 and the tracks will be perfectly fine to play on – they might just be a bit slow.

“Worcester’s one of those grounds that seems to cope with the floods every year, but it’s a long season and hopefully we’ll be playing rather than watching it rain.”

Riley also went into more detail about the club’s pre-season. In 2012, Head Coach Jimmy Adams took the side away to the Caribbean prior to the season’s start, but this year they stayed in Canterbury to prepare for the new campaign.

Riley admitted that while they might miss the sun and surroundings of the West Indies, staying in the UK would allow them to get practice on more suitable pitches.

“There are two arguments, really. If you go to Barbados, you’re going to play in the sun and are going get some warm weather, but you don’t always play on wickets that are going to be realistic to when you get back”, Riley said.

“At Hampshire [in pre-season] last year where we were wearing gloves and woolly hats, pre-season meant that we could wear the gloves to protect our fingers, but at the same time we were still getting good match practice on wickets that we were likely to come across early season.

“There’s two arguments to whether going away, getting warm weather and definitely playing every day or whether staying in England, where you might get a bit of rain now and then but you’ll definitely play on wickets that are probably more realistic to what you’ll see early season.”

Riley will be pleased with his pre-season work so far, having taken 3-36 from nine overs during Kent’s first pre-season encounter; a 50-over friendly game against Durham, yesterday. Riley was the pick of the bowlers, before Kent chased down the 277 needed to pick up a three-wicket win. Fabian Cowdrey, Daniel Bell-Drummond and Sam Billings all made half-centuries in Kent’s total of 279-7.

The sides meet again at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence today in two T20 matches, with entry to the ground free.

 

Adam Riley picture supplied by Sarah Ansell – www.sarahansellphotography.com.

The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence picture supplied by Patrick Pierce.