Marc Petrie: Blog #1 from Pune
From Pune, 100 miles east of Mumbai, Marc Petrie contributes the first Blog of the tour to India by Scotland's National Academy
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It’s hot...very hot, and all the boys are feeling it after a tough but exciting start to the trip.
With the third day finished, everybody has enjoyed the first few days, and we are all anticipating more challenges and enjoyment for what’s to come. So far we have had some good net, fielding and one-to-one sessions at the Poona Cricket Groun, followed by a cool down/swim session at the end of each day, which I can say helps in preparation for the next day.
The flight went well with no delays or problems and the heat in India hit everybody as we came out of Mumbai airport to wait on our bus to bring us to Pune. This bus ride was supposed to be about 3 hours but ended up being about 4 hours (with a couple of impromptu stops) which meant we arrived at the hotel at about 7am.
One huge positive in arriving at the hotel at this time was breakfast just being served. After everybody tucked into some traditional Indian breakfast of chicken, toast and more chicken we went for a much-needed sleep until lunchtime. We then had lunch at the hotel and took the short journey to the ground for a short, but intense fielding session to get used to the ground and heat conditions. Dinner in India was as expected... curries, so we feasted on this, followed by a short team meeting then to bed.
Day two was much tougher. An 8 o’clock wake-up for breakfast, then to the ground by 9.30. We started off with nets in the morning, in which everyone put in 100%, and it showed with the bowlers bowling well in new conditions and the batters adjusting well to slow, low and turning wickets as you would expect in the sub-continent.
We had lunch at the ground - and guess what we had... yes, chicken. The afternoon was a hard couple of hours with game-like situations on a centre wicket. We then followed training by our daily trip to the pool for a cool down.
On this trip we have been split up into five teams of three for team challenges against each of the other teams. Day one was a swimming competition and day two a quiz with three round: sports, general knowledge and “Pune” knowledge. This was a close contest, as was the swimming, and I am sure all of these challenges will be close, with a prize to play for at the end of the 12 days.
Today (Sunday, day 3) we again started with a net session, except for the keepers who had a session with a very experienced Indian keeper, who is a possible pick for next year's IPL, which was excellent. The keepers also had a chance later to bat in the nets. The batters seemed a bit more accustomed to the conditions today, and the bowlers were also hitting their lines and lengths after a couple of days working with former Pakistan coach and Australian test player Geoff Lawson.
After lunch, we did some batting drills with some of the coaches from India who are working with us on this trip, which all of us found very interesting and helpful. The bowlers then had a chance to bat while the rest of us worked on technical drills.
That brings us to this point, and all I can say, and I am speaking for everyone, is that we are looking forward to what’s in store on the trip, and we are looking forward to learning more and bringing our game forward to the next step, and gaining lots of experience of playing in India.
