For the third year running, Leinster are currently running its own off season training camp for youth cricketers at the La Manga sports resort in South East Spain. The boys who have been engaged in Leinster squad indoor training up to this point will this week train outdoors at La Manga’s impressive cricket facilities.
The La Manga club is world renowned for it's first class sporting and resort amenities and has played host to many other sporting organisations such as Liverpool, Chelsea & Real Madrid Football Clubs, and more recently Munster Rugby and both Armagh and Dublin Gaelic Football sides. On site, there are dedicated cricketing facilities thanks to La Manga's purpose built cricket oval complete with four full-length practice nets. There is also a large, comprehensively equipped gym, a 25-metre indoor pool, numerous outdoors pools and extensive outdoor practice areas.
A select group of ten promising Leinster underage cricketers are currently partaking in seven full days of training & conditioning from December 16th - 22nd. All of these cricketers have come through the Leinster development programme and several of the boys have been added to Irish underage training squads this winter.
The boys commenced training on Sunday last with the dry and warm weather (forecast is very good for the week) ensuring excellent training conditions. Also present at the sports club this week are the top twenty British male and female tennis players who like the Leinster cricketers are taking advantage of both the facilities and warm weather training that is so common in this part of Spain even at this time of the year. On Friday, following training, the boys will travel to watch local soccer clubs Cartagena play Murcia in the La Liga second division.
The squad in full is as follows. Aaron Bailey (YMCA), Eamon Byrne (Leinster CC), Max Byers (Pembroke), Adam Craig (Clontarf), Mark Donegan (The Hills), Danny Hogan (Terenure), David Murphy (Laois), Conor O’Gorman (Leinster CC), James Smith (Terenure) & Fiachra Tucker (Pembroke).
Coaching/Management: Kenny Carroll & Andrew Leonard.