Clapham namechecks Hawks’ Alex and Hugo Hammond, captain Will Flynn, of Tridents, and Black Cats’ Angus Brown as players he knows well from domestic cricket and is looking forward to joining this month.
Hugo Hammond, who also has clubfoot, boasts hundreds of thousands of social media followers from his time on ITV show Love Island in 2021, and he will now be returning to the heat in a sporting context in Sri Lanka.
“The weather’s pretty good out there – around 34 degrees – so it’s very, very different to the snow we’ve seen in [England],” Clapham added.
“We’re not professional cricketers, so all internationals need to work out the best time to squeeze it in. It’s really exciting.
“We train at Edgbaston and on indoor surfaces – it’s not going to be anything similar to the conditions in Sri Lanka.
“But the guys have been working really, really hard on fitness and technique and skill work.
“The tricky thing at the time of year is getting the overs in the legs, especially as bowlers. I can’t wait to get the spikes on and run on grass again.
“All of our games are early in the morning, which will be good because we won’t have to worry about the heat so much.
“I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time together. We’ve played a lot of cricket together domestically and it’ll be nice, hopefully, to do it in an England shirt.”
