DUBAI and China are among the destinations for Kent's cricketers looking to keep in trim ahead of the new season.

Although dubbed the nation’s summer game, cricket is fast becoming an all-year sport, so it is little wonder that half the Kent playing squad spent Christmas overseas.

Playing in warmer climes helps top up the coffers and retain fitness levels and, for the younger fringe players in particular, testing your skills in the hard-nosed leagues of Australian or South African grade cricket is nowadays considered something of a finishing school.

Wicketkeeper Geraint Jones was glad to be back home in Blighty for a fortnight or so after England’s disappointing tour of Pakistan, giving him a chance to unwrap his presents, catch up with club-mates and recharge the batteries ahead of the trip to India.

Also home for the festivities were bowlers Simon Cook, Simon Cusden, Rob Ferley, David Stiff, Robbie Joseph, Min Patel and James Tredwell, and batsmen David Fulton and Darren Stevens.

New skipper Rob Key is still on the road to recovery after undergoing shoulder surgery in November, but plans to link up with the ECB Academy squad in Loughborough in the new year.

Once 2006 is welcomed in the players’ passports come out in earnest and, by St Valentine’s Day, virtually the entire playing staff could well be either away from home or abroad.

Stevens plans a two-month training camp in South Africa, while Stiff and Tredwell make tracks for Adelaide and Brisbane respectively.

Strike bowler Amjad Khan, who spent the festive season in Copenhagen with his family, will also return to Australia, having previously worked there with Dennis Lillee.

Meanwhile, new vice-captain Patel is heading for Dubai, with the Lord’s Taverners, and China, later in the year, as captain of an MCC side.

Of those already abroad, Kent’s first Kolpak signing Martin van Jaarsveld has returned to South Africa to captain Northern Titans, oddly as an overseas player.

Martin Saggers is also in South Africa, combining his hobby of wildlife photography with a little cricket.

He and new signing Neil Dexter will be working in Durban after Christmas at the cricket academy run by Kent coach Graham Ford.

Dexter, a right-handed version of South Africa’s compact Test star Jacques Rudolph, is already looking in good shape, having scored 180 for his Durban club side just before Christmas.

Joe Denly, having acted as 12th man in the Superseries six-day Test, has recovered from a fractured finger and is playing for Sydney grade side Balmain Tigers and pitting his wits against wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien, who is with A Grade club North Sydney.

All-rounder Matthew Dennington is on the other side of the continent, playing Suburban Turf cricket for Perth-based club Claremont.

If all goes to plan, barely half-a-dozen of the squad will remain in England through to February, but they too will be working hard in Canterbury with coaching co-ordinator Simon Willis and Kent’s fitness guru Glen Ewen.