I catch Yorkshire County Cricket Club batsman Jack Leaning by phone one afternoon for a natter about winter training and he launches into the meticulous, finessed programme tailored for each player.
At this time of year, downtime centres around taking it easy and boxsetting it up given the likely punishing summer schedule for the twenty-three year-old who is hoping to feature in all three formats in 2017.
We don’t tend to give much thought to county cricket professionals when they’re out of sight, fine-tuning in the nets over Christmas, but that is where much of the mileage in the legs is established and topped up.
Pictures typically emerge on social media of the Yorkshire CCC squad pushing weights across the floor like a version of the Nineties TV hit Gladiators (did anyone get that reference?)
This year, they trained with the Yorkshire Regiment for a fresh perspective on fitness and teamwork.
Somewhat mischeviously, I quiz Jack about Australian international batsman Peter Handscomb who is coming to Headingley – and whether the signing is welcomed or a private frustration – but he bats that back with the full face of the blade.
We get round to discussing him making the North squad, captained by Keaton Jennings and including Tim Bresnan, to play the South squad out in Abu Dhabi as a vehicle to press Leaning’s England aspirations; reward for limited overs form in 2016.
LISTEN TO THE FULL JACK LEANING INTERVIEW BELOW
Jack Leaning live (well, he was at the time) and uncut…can’t say fairer than that.
Due to the five-minute limit on audio clips for Audioboom, his views on the strength of ECB Yorkshire League North and life at York Cricket Club missed the cut but ‘strong’ and ‘loving it’ pretty much sums that up!
