Post Card from India: 'Aim to come home with a series win'

My recent trip to India in December last year has proved to be a great success when it has come to organizing various aspects of this tour. I came here and chatted to the Indian board and gave them our list of requirements for our team's stay and the Indians have been more than helpful in this regard. Things such as net bowlers, sufficient number of nets to practice in, availability of bowling machines, checking the hotels and liasing with the caterers for our lunches at the grounds has all worked out quite well. It seems that some our boys will be returning home with quite an affinity for butter chicken and wives and girlfriends be warned, you may have to touch up your culinary skills in this regard.

The one area we have not had complete success so far is in the smooth planning of flight connections between matches. We will still be flying from Cochin to Bombay and then connecting to Calcutta only to connect again with a charter to Jamshedpur for our 2nd one-dayer. Why we can't get the charter from Cochin direct to Jamshedpur no one knows!

My biggest challenge thus far has been to try and extricate our sponsors' beverages from the bonded warehouse in customs. The hotels where we stay have to order the beverages out of the warehouse on our behalf, but some of the hotels haven't had the required permits to do so.

One cannot begin to imagine how much in demand our boys are here from the India media. There seems to be more journalists than taxis (and you know how many taxis there are) and every day we get about 10 to 15 requests for interviews from our players a day. To give you an example, this morning I had to duck and dive from some of them as they were on my case, knowing that it's the day before the test match and the Indians are in a fix to level the series. Thus tensions and interests are running high, nonetheless, we got through some of the interviews and fortunately the players have been able to relax in the afternoon and prepare for the 5 days ahead. It just goes to show the unparalleled level of interest and passion for the great game of cricket in this lovely part of the world.

One of my goals on this trip has been to give myself an honorary dietetics degree. One of our major concerns from the last trip 4 years ago was the food and how the boys would cope, especially some of the lads who haven't been to this part of the world before. I have become quite a self-respected expert on Indian, Chinese and Thai food and am now ready to take the team to Singapore and prepare the dishes there in the multi-culture which is made up of Indians, Chinese and Thai people.

My hope for the next test match is for our boys to play well and achieve the aims set out at the beginning of the season; to come home from India with a series win.