Yahoo Sports Quad series 'really exciting' for England
England Men's Physically Disabled (PD) team all-rounder Anthony Clapham says he cannot wait for the start of the quad series against India, Pakistan and hosts Sri Lanka in Colombo on Sunday.
Berkshire and Pirates player Clapham is part of a 15-man squad who will face Sri Lanka after the opening ceremony, with their first chance for revenge over India, who won a five-match series at home to England last March, to follow on Monday.
"We know what India are about," Clapham told BBC Radio Solent. "India have 445 PD players who went for trials, so they've got a massive group to select from. I'm sure they'll have some new players to look at.
"We didn't have any warm-up games out there [in India], hadn't been in those conditions and played within two or three days of landing.
"Those aren't excuses, but we started to really get [more competitive] later and lost 3-2.
"India go in as favourites, naturally, because they beat us previously, but we've made some changes, we've got new coaches, so it's a fresh set of eyes.
"Until we've played each other, it's hard to say [which teams] are favourites and who'll be in the final."
England appointed Derbyshire second team coach and head of analytics Chris Highton as their head coach after returning from India in what was a memorable year for international newcomer Clapham.
Born with the foot condition talipes, also known as clubfoot, and told by doctors that he would never play any sports, the big-hitter captained the Pirates to glory in the Disability Premier League (DPL) final at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens in September.
Clapham top-scored with 55 off 49 balls in a game shown live on Sky Sports before England Men took on Australia in a T20I match, playing as part of the highest domestic competition for disability cricket in England and Wales, which combines the best players from the PD, Learning Disability and Deaf teams.
"I've been Pirates captain for the last three years," said Clapham. "We lost the last two finals, unfortunately, so there was a lot of pressure coming into that one.
"We finally got over the line and it was a great game. It's great exposure for disability cricket, for those who tuned in on TV and things like that.
"If we can pick up one or two people just from watching that, the ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] have done their job."
England will meet India again in T20 format in June and July in the first ever pan-disability series between two countries, inspired by the DPL in a trial of the model at the highest level.
Should that prove successful, countries will be able to focus resources on Pan-Disability and Blind Cricket formats, with the aim of growing participation and improving standards.
"It'll be the best of the best and a great spectacle," Clapham said. "I think they'll choose six players from each impairment group.
"The ICC [International Cricket Council] is going to be involved, so the funding will be stronger and hopefully we'll get a lot more visibility."
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."
