From the Coach's desk: England tour week 1
Touring England is a pretty special experience for any cricketer and a career highlight for anyone who is fortunate enough to play over here.
First of all, the history. Everywhere you go in England the history of the country and its small towns are a big part of the experience.
Our first stop on the tour was in a quaint little town called Taunton. We stayed in a castle that was built in the 1200s and there were churches around the town that were built in the 1100s. Coming from New Zealand, where our country only began in the early 1800s, that is a little surreal.
It was nice wandering around the town at night with the cobblestone roads and the bridges over rivers as you make your way down to the local pub for dinner and a pint.
We’d then wake up in the morning and walk five minutes down the road to the Somerset County Cricket Ground for the match or training; it really is a special place to play. It’s a beautiful little ground, with loads of history and it’s had many fine cricketers as locals and overseas players.
There is a strong Kiwi connection with Somerset that dates back many years. Six New Zealanders have played here throughout the history of the club and that is well reflected in the museum.
Martin Crowe, who followed on from [Sir] Vivian Richards here, is perhaps the most famous Kiwi to have played for Somerset. He came here as a 21-year-old, which in the 1980s was unheard of, and performed admirably for the club. It is nice to continue that Kiwi tradition here with Corey Anderson coming here later this year to play in the T20 Blast.
Kiwi born English international Andy Caddick played here for almost 20 years and is one of the club’s legends. It was nice to see him come down to the ground and watch the match for a couple of days.
It was also pleasing to see how the ground is developing - there are new stands going up and it is evolving. The characteristics of the surface have changed over the past couple of years. It seems to be back to having a little bit of pace and bounce and a bit of seam movement. I am not sure that it always plays like that but playing on a surface that challenged our batsman was good preparation for us.
I really enjoyed talking with the locals. A lot of them have watched touring sides from New Zealand over the years and could tell us great stories from years gone by. They always enjoy it when New Zealand comes back, they love to talk about the great Kiwi players who have been here before and they marked our match with some memorabilia in the cricket shop, which was a nice touch.
It is quite nostalgic, talking with the elder statesmen of the club. They love their cricket here and it is great to see that passion for the game. It was an older crowd, but hopefully they can keep the club going for generations and get some youngsters from the area involved.
Another great part of the experience in England is the number of people waiting outside the changing sheds for autographs from the players. There are a lot of traditionalists, a lot of autograph hunters and people who love their memorabilia. That is something that you get at internationals at home, but you don’t get at domestic cricket. It was nice to see our younger guys like Jacob Duffy, Mitchell Santner and Ben Wheeler making their debuts and experiencing that side of the game for the first time.
We move onto Worcester now where we have our second warm up game of the tour for the Test series. Most warm up games these days are not first class games. You don’t get as many warm up games as what you used to so you try to get the whole squad involved. That is important to assist preparation. We are hoping to do the best we can as we get ready for the first Test. It is also a game in its own right as well and we need to give it the respect it deserves as well.
We have begun the tour well and I am sure all of the touring party are learning a lot both on and off the field as the England tour is an experience unlike any other.
