THE Somerset cricketers will all be flying out to Abu Dhabi on Monday for a pre-season camp during which they will play both red and white warm up matches before returning to Taunton on March 24 ahead of their three-day friendly against Exeter University.

New captain Lewis Gregory said: “It’s a chance to get the guys back outside on grass. A few of them went to Sri Lanka a few weeks back and others have been playing some franchise cricket so this is a great opportunity to get everyone together back out playing on grass and get ourselves ready to start firing at the start of April.

“This is an exciting time of year for every county cricketer. Everyone is back in from being away and there is a really good buzz around the place and we are all looking forward to getting cracking.”

On his appointment as captain, he added: “This is a really exciting opportunity for me to try and push the squad that we have got forward and hopefully we can see some results. Last year winning the T20 was fantastic and the team did really well as we have been for a number of years.”