Warriors Pre-Season tour squads announced

The squads for the Western Warriors three pre-season tours have been named with the new domestic cricket season rapidly approaching.

The Warriors will be embarking on tours to Darwin, Newman and India in the next month as the squad finalises their preparation for the 2006-07 summer and Coach Wayne Clark is looking forward to seeing his charges out in the middle after a solid two months of training.

"We've been presented with a couple of great opportunities to get out on the park and play some competitive matches on turf wickets before the start of the summer," Clark said.

"Heading to Darwin, Newman and India in the space of a month should give the boys a great preparation for the season ahead."

The first tour is to Darwin for the Institute Challenge, a tournament that sees the best young players from the domestic teams take each other on in a series of one-day matches. Teams are only allowed two players over the age of 23 with the rest of the side to be made up of younger players. The squad will depart for Darwin on Monday.

Newman is the destination for the second tour which commences on Monday the 11th of September.

Thanks to an innovative partnership between the WACA and BHP Billiton Iron Ore a turf wicket was installed in the Pilbara town last year and the Warriors will be using it for the first time this pre-season.

The squad will play two one-day matches and a Twenty20 match during the week long trip to the Pilbara, with the matches to be played as intra squad matches. Six members of the Indigenous XI will also make the trip to help form the two teams.

The final pre-season tour is the recently announced 12 day trip to the Indian cities of Bangalore and Mysore.

Thanks to a new partnership with the University of Western Australia a squad of 17 players will take part in three one-day matches and a three-day match against the First Class team from Karnataka State. The touring party departs on the 21st of September.

Institute Challenge Squad

Marcus North (Captain), Arron Crawford, Theo Doropoulos, Michael Johnson, Tim MacDonald, James Newnham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Liam Davis, Chris Hansberry, Craig King, Josh Mangan and Shane Rakich.

Pilbara Tour Squad

Justin Langer (Captain), Marcus North (Vice-Captain), Arron Crawford, Theo Doropoulos, Aaron Heal, Clint Heron, Tim MacDonald, Josh Mangan, Scott Meuleman, Luke Ronchi, David Bandy, Liam Davis, Shawn Gillies, Mathew Inness, Andrew James, Steve Magoffin, Luke Pomersbach and Darren Wates.

UWA India Tour Squad

Justin Langer (Captain), Marcus North (Vice-Captain), David Bandy, Brett Dorey, Ben Edmondson, Shawn Gillies, Aaron Heal, Clint Heron, Mathew Inness, Steve Magoffin, Shaun Marsh, Scott Meuleman, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi, Adam Voges, Darren Wates and Peter Worthington.

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