Our preparation for the World Cup has officially begun. All the Southern Stars *(myself included!) have been training hard over the past few weeks, running, hitting the gym and of course doing the fun stuff; bowling, batting and fielding.
But what else does our preparation involve, particularly for the sub continent? Good question! I'm still yet to perfect my packing! We all had to complete the necessary immunisations for international travel. Along with that we've all figured out over time that we need to pack some food! I took the essentials to go with my naan bread (peanut butter and nutella of course!). I also cleaned out the protein bars from my local supermarket (sorry Woolworths). Muesli bars and dried fruit also made the trip – just basics to ensure I have food when I need it. The trick is variety; we are away for a month and after a week of eating your favourite brand of muesli bars, I can assure you that they are no longer your favourite and you will not touch them when you get home.
We had a 2 day camp in Melbourne before taking off. Here we had a full day training, including centre wicket scenarios and a nets session in the afternoon. The following day we had our monthly 2km time trial followed by a gym session, before heading to the airport. We hadn’t even finished checking in before we had our first mishap – Queenslander Delissa Kimmince left her passport on the counter! Luckily the kind staff returned it to her before she even realised she was missing it.The travel seemed to go on forever. We stopped over at Singapore for about an hour before re-boarding and we were then off again, before landing in Dubai where had an 8 hour stop over. Here we were finally able to book into a hotel, go for a shower and sleep in a bed. I never thought I’d be so happy to be able to just lie horizontally! Finally it was time to complete our last leg of the trip – our flight to Bangladesh. It was interesting seeing how each flight seems to transition between cultures. The Australia to Singapore trip consisted largely of Australians. Singapore to Dubai saw a variety of different cultures get on board. Then finally, the Bangladesh leg had plenty of locals on it. The humour for the day occurred just after landing. Normally you would stay in your seat until the plane has come to a complete stop and the seatbelt sign is off. But no, here as soon as the plane had landed it seemed that it was a race to see who could get out of their seat and get their bags first. Pretty sure the Australian and New Zealand cricket teams were the only ones who were left in their seats out of the whole plane.
We were greeted by our liaison officer as well as our local security officer. Our security officer opened the invitation for our team to create a nickname for him… I’m pretty sure he’ll start to regret that soon. Everyone is very inviting and friendly! We were also greeted by thousands of mozzies at the airport. Hopefully we’ve all packed enough Aeroguard for the trip!
We finally got to bed and were able to sleep in. It wasn’t long until I heard about the second mishap of the trip – Delissa’s roommate Rene Farrell was taking a shower and the plug (without her realising) was stuck and she ended up filling the bath to the top. Usually it’s me getting caught in these kinds of situations so I’m glad to announce I am yet to make a fool of myself. We have a meeting later this morning followed by training. Our first warm up game is against Sri Lanka tomorrow and we're all looking forward to getting out there and finally playing some cricket!
