Tribe’s Lions heroics fuel Glamorgan’s belief on return to Championship elite

Bespectacled young batter shone on England duty in Australia and is primed to make a splash in Division One

The daffodils were in suitable bloom in Cardiff, swathes of them, creeping from under the trees in Bute Park, yolky heads bobbing in the spring sunshine. A few hundred metres up the road, Glamorgan’s players were gathering at Sophia Gardens before their biggest season in years, back in Division One of the County Championship for the first time since 2005.

Last year’s campaign was a slow burner, but blossomed, a close-knit side playing confidently. Alongside a thousand runs each from Colin Ingram and Kiran Carlson, were eye-catching performances from two talented 21-year-olds, Ben Kellaway and Asa Tribe, who went on to be picked for the Lions tours in the winter. In their shellacking by Australia A in the unofficial Test, Tribe hit an unbeaten 129, which was enough to get him a name-check from the England managing director, Rob Key, in pre-season media musings – the only non-capped player to be mentioned.