'Indians make us feel comfortable and happy'

For me so far, I have found this tour to India to be a lot more enjoyable than the last tour I did back in 1996 with the SA under 19's. Obviously when you travel in the national squad you get looked after much better than as a bunch of schoolboys. We were all still quite young and the different cultures that we saw and experienced were real eye-openers and produced memories that will stay with me forever.

On that trip, we traveled around the country by plane, train and bus. On one occasion we flew to Delhi from Bombay and then climbed into a small coaster bus with our coffins and luggage on our laps and had to drive for 6 hours to the next match venue. We left Delhi at 11 am and after first taking us to the wrong town, we eventually arrived in the correct city at 2 am the next morning, a trip of 15 hours total in the bus. That will never happen to the national team who get looked after really well and here we must compliment the Indian people for going out of their way to make us feel comfortable and happy.

The most difficult adaptation I've had to make is adjusting to the food. I'm not blaming anyone or anything, just stating a fact that from where I come from (Bloemfontein), what we regard as meat is either a steak or lamb chops. Over here, you get plenty of chicken and everything is cooked in a real spicy way. The Indians like their food tasty and when we ask if its spicy, their always say "no not really". This of course applies to what they regard as being spicy and not me. You can probably tell that I don't really like spicy food much and the first night I get home I'm going to have a fat juicy braai and will only have real meat cooked the Bloem way.

I've been spending my free-time sightseeing and shopping a bit as well as catching up on my BComm Law Degree studies. The shopping is quite good and I've bought a few leather goods and a nice backpack. I'm still looking for a good leather jacket to keep me warm during the Bloem winter nights.

The cricket you play on the sub-continent is very different to what we play back home in SA. What has struck me the most is the wickets which seem to take a lot of turn and don't really help the quicks that much. This probably explains why India doesn't produce many genuine fast bowlers and why they tend to play spin so well. The make-up of their sides is interesting too as they will play a seamer and an all-rounder with 3 spinners whereas we will play 3 seamers, a couple of all-rounders and only one spinner.

Anyway, I'm just grateful to be here and hope I can come back on the next SA tour to India.