Cheltenham Target For Injured Seamers
17 June 2014
Craig Miles (pictured) and James Fuller are targeting next month’s Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Cricket Festival for a return to action after injury.
Craig claimed 43 LV=County Championship wickets while still learning his trade in 2013, moving Gloucestershire’s Director of Cricket John Bracewell to describe him as the “best Under-20 bowler in the country.”
But hopes of starting this season well were shattered when the talented youngster returned from a winter spell with the Potential England Performance Programme at Loughborough University nursing a back complaint.
It was later diagnosed as a bulged disc and has forced Craig to miss Gloucestershire’s first eight Championship fixtures, as well as their NatWest T20 Blast campaign to date.
James also faces a further period on the sidelines with a foot injury and is not expected to play before the start of the Cheltenham Festival on Monday July 14.
The pace bowler is under treatment for a stress reaction in a foot, which has already caused him to miss two Championship and two T20 fixtures.
James has taken 18 Championship and seven NatWest T20 Blast wickets in the matches he had participated in this summer, including six for 47 against Surrey at The Kia Oval.
John Bracewell told this website: “We hope to get Craig bowling again in a week or so and that he will be ready for Cheltenham.
“It has been a tough period for him, but the important thing is that he is 100 per cent when he does start playing again and can contribute fully to the second half of the season.
“James has an unusual injury, which is known to take four to six weeks to clear up.
“It is treated like a stress fracture and requires three weeks without doing anything before a slow build-up back to full fitness.”
This year’s Cheltenham Festival runs from Monday 14 July to Sunday 27 July and includes two NatWest T20 Blast matches as well as two LV= CC four day games and the start of the Royal London One-Day Cup.
2014 Brewin Dolphin Cheltenham Festival Fixtures:
Monday 14 July – Thursday 17 July LV=CC v Derbyshire
Friday 18 July NatWest T20 Blast v Surrey
Sunday 20 July NatWest T20 Blast v Essex
Monday 21 – Thursday 24 July LV=CC v Worcestershire
Sunday 27 July Royal London One-Day Cup v Northamptonshire
