It promises to be an enormous year for Manx cricket with the senior island side taking part in the International Cricket Council’s T20 World Cup qualifiers in June.

Later in the summer, the under-17s squad will compete in their age group equivalent, although details of that qualifying competition are not confirmed at present.

The men’s squad will travel to Belgium to take on the hosts along with Denmark, Austria, Romania, Czech Republic, Portugal and Serbia.

The winning team from each of the three Europe qualifiers dotted throughout the summer will progress to a four-team Europe final, where they will be joined by reigning victors Jersey.

The top two teams will qualify for the global qualifiers, taking them one step closer to the World Cup, which will take place in India next October.

Players from both Manx squads have been training hard since the onset of Autumn.

Squad members were assessed on their levels of core strength and stamina, which are bench-marked against international standards.

The players have faced further tests to ensure that improvements in their fitness levels have continued.

Coach Greig Wright often asserts, looking at me with a disdainful eye, that you don’t get fit playing cricket, but you need to be fit to play cricket at a higher level.

There were test sessions prior to Christmas, and I am sure that the players could hear over the festive period, the coach’s voice saying: ’Do you need that extra mince pie and glass of sherry that you found by the fireside? It will mean an extra two miles on your run today.’

Training continues at least once a week for a minimum of three hours.

It is important that the players work on their game, looking at how they are performing. The senior side’s captain Matthew Ansell commented: ’There is a mental challenge, whereby each player needs to assess their whole process of bowling or batting. We aim to continuously improve our game, but we are looking forward to the challenges ahead.’

I watched the senior squad train on Thursday and the batsmen were hitting in very clean fashion and enormously hard.

If asked in the summer, where I wished to field when Nathan Knights is batting, I will most likely say: ’That field next door. I may be able catch it there!’

The full squad meet in the middle of February, when the overseas players will travel back to the island to join up for a full day’s training.

George Burrows, who is plying his trade as a cricketer in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, will return in the Spring.

There is a lot more work to be done by squads, but the players are investing a lot of their spare time and immense effort in order to be a part of team that aims to be competitive on the world stage later in the year.ANDY COULSON