Although Hampshire’s domestic season is long gone, the winter is not a time to be resting for the players. Many are travelling abroad to make the best use of the sunshine in preparation for next summer. 
 
Hampshire players are all over the world: veteran Dominic Cork is basking in the sunshine in the Caribbean after helping England Masters win the inaugural Cricket Legends of Barbados International Cup, beating South Africa in the final. At the other end of the age scale Hamza Riazuddin is in South Africa getting the practice in by playing for the University of Cape Town cricket team. Meanwhile Dimitri Mascarenhas has replaced Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga for Australian side Tasmania in their Twenty20 ‘Big Bash’ campaign. 

 

Michael Carberry

Michael Carberry may have finished the season injured for Hampshire but now he has fully recovered and found some good form for the England Performance Programme side. He made a century against South African team Gauteng batting at number four, behind Stephen Moore, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell, and also added an impressive quickfire 76, when opening, in the win over the Titans.
 
David Balcombe is using some of the time to research a potential career option after cricket while also working hard on his game for next season: “My winter so far has been pretty hectic. I’m actually splitting my time between London and Southampton at the moment in the lead up to Christmas. I decided at the end of the season I wanted a bit of a fresh challenge and a bit of a break from cricket and I managed to sort out some work experience as an intern at a company which specialises in sports sponsorship evaluation. The company is called TNS Sport and basically place a value on sports sponsorship for both the sponsors looking for involvement in sport and also for the teams looking to put their sponsorship out to tender.
 
“This takes my time up at the start of the week and then I’m full on training for the rest of the time up in Surrey. I’ve also been popping down every now and then to The Rose Bowl just to touch base with Chalks, Brunch and Jonny. From January onwards I’m going to be based in Southampton permanently in the lead up to pre season with the possibility of heading abroad for a couple of weeks if the right thing comes along.”

 David Balcombe

Youngster Benny Howell has taken steps to get in as much practice and sunshine as possible; he’s in Australia and playing very well: “I'm in Melbourne playing for Camberwell Magpies. We are currently mid table and doing OK. I've been captaining the one day games with success. Batting wise it’s going well, I managed to score a 100 last week and I’m averaging just under 60. The bowling is going pretty well too... I’m actually opening the bowling at the moment and have taken 18 wickets averaging in the 20s.So all in all the cricket side of things is going smoothly. I believe it’s all the home cooked meals I’m getting from my mum doing the trick!”
 
Continue to view the website for updates on all the players’ activities over the winter.
 
Steven Woodgate
 

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