ARCH Trophy: Trescothick out with stress again, Flintoff makes 39 on return

[Skater]

The ARCH Trophy is a competitive pre season competition for invited teams from England. This year Essex, Lancashire, Somerset, Sussex and Yorkshire will be playing in it.

Schedule

12th March: Essex v United Arab Emirates at Sharjah
14th March: Lancashire v United Arab Emirates at Sharjah
16th March: Essex v Lancashire at Sharjah
18th March: Essex v Somerset at Abu Dhabi
19th March: Lancashire v Sussex at Abu Dhabi
20th March: Essex v Sussex at at Sharjah
21st March: Lancashire v Yorkshire at Abu Dhabi
22nd March: Somerset v United Arab Emirates at Abu Dhabi
23rd March: Somerset v Sussex at Abu Dhabi
25th March: Somerset v Yorkshire at Abu Dhabi
26th March: Sussex v Yorkshire at Abu Dhabi
28th March: Yorkshire v United Arab Emirates at Abu Dhabi

All of the matches are 50 overs per side. All of the high profile players are expected to go, including Darren Gough, Marcus Trescothick, Ravi Bopara, Mal Loye, James Foster and even Andrew Flintoff.

Although not confirmed, it is looking like one hour of the highlights of each game will be shown here in the UK.

There is more about the competition at http://www.archtrophy.com/ .

 

[Left_Hander]

I never heard of a Pre-Season competition in England. They don't have one here domesticly in Australia.

 

[Skater]

I never heard of a Pre-Season competition in England. They don't have one here domesticly in Australia.

It is being played in the UAE, but still, this is the first competition of its kind. Usually the counties play against the university centres of cricketing excellence as a warm up.

 

[Ollie_H]

Is this the first time it has happened?

 

[Skater]

Is this the first time it has happened?

It is the first time there has been a pre-season competition abroad.

Essex play tomorrow, against the full UAE national side. I think we can win!

 

[Therbs]

I like the concept. For Australian first class teams the distances they travel ensure that the teams get to go on tour for most games, and that is good from a team building perspective. This gives an 'on tour' atmosphere for the county teams.

 

[Skater]

I had to do some digging to find the results so far from the tournament, but here they are:

Essex v United Arab Emirates at Sharjah

Essex innings: 267 all out (Westley 66)
United Arab Emirates innings: 257 all out (Bakhtiyar 72, Batuwitarachchi 54)

Essex won by 10 runs

Lancashire v United Arab Emirates at Sharjah

Lancashire innings: 276/7 (Loye 83)
United Arab Emirates innings: 198 all out (Saqib Ali 61)

Lancashire won by 78 runs

Essex v Lancashire at Sharjah

Lancashire innings: 255/9 (Sutcliffe 54, Sutton 51 not out)
Essex innings: 192 all out

Lancashire won by 63 runs

-----

Marcus Trescothick has gone home from the Somerset squad in the UAE because of his stress-related illness. Bad news for England. Some good news is that Andrew Flintoff made 39 in Lancashire's game against Essex.

 

[Sureshot]

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/other/engine/series/318073.html

Scorecards on CricInfo, Lee.

 

[0601731]

trescothick's international career is well and truly over,a great talent lost.