David Ripley’s 12-man Northamptonshire squad will have the chance to play in front of spectators for the first time in 20 months tomorrow when they welcome Lancashire to The County Ground.
The fixture is the first time crowds have been allowed to return since September 2019, a match where Northamptonshire all but sealed promotion in their final home County Championship fixture against Durham.
Ricardo Vasconcelos said the squad were ‘buzzing’ to see supporters in the ground again.
“It has been completely different playing here without the supporters in, and it will give us a massive boost to see them.” Vasconcelos said.
“When there’s a crowd in, it does get you going in those times when things perhaps aren’t going your way and you will hear the odd shout of ‘get on with it!’.
“Or you might hear a little something else and you enjoy that, it gets you going again.”
While current guidelines mean only 15-20% of the ground’s total capacity can be filled, Head Coach David Ripley said the number wasn’t important.
“You don’t need many in, you don’t need thousands of people, if you’ve got a few hundred in you kind of know them.
“That is the benefit of our smaller, family type club, that we know what it means to our supporters, because we know them.”
General Admission tickets are still available to order online, any remaining tickets can be purchased from the Ticket Office on the day of the fixture. Please note The County Ground is now cashless.
Northamptonshire LV= Insurance County Championship Squad vs Lancashire
Adam Rossington (c/wk)
Gareth Berg
Ben Curran
Rob Keogh
Simon Kerrigan
Wayne Parnell
Luke Procter
Ben Sanderson
Tom Taylor
Charlie Thurston
Ricardo Vasconcelos
Saif Zaib