Conditions very foreign for cricketers
Central Districts cricket captain Will Young is in India with the New Zealand A team. He provides a tour diary of what has gone on and how he has found it.
New Zealand A’s first tour match was against India A at the Dr GL Gangaaraju ACA Cricket Ground, Vijayawada. Young talks about the build-up to the match.
As we arrive at the ground and step out of the air conditioned bus you’re hit by the wall of humidity.
We have a few minutes in the changing room to get our gear organised, record our weight and our refracto test (dehydration levels) and then after checking to see how training is set up on the white board we are out on the ground to ‘warm up’ although loosen up is probably a better term.
The tropical rain normally falls in late afternoon or overnight so the ground is covered with wavy patterns of grass clippings which have been shifted from the surface water. Not too dissimilar to the wavy patterns you would expect to see at Fitzroy beach at low tide.
The number of dragon flies buzzing around is incredible, as we are taking catches it feels as if we’re in the middle an Avatar scene.
Onto the nets and by this stage our shirts are feeling more like rash tops and we have the 100 per cent humidity to thank for that.
We all head over to the nets and it is a great opportunity to get stuck into the specific things we are working on.
There are quality net bowlers for days and the players in the squad are training at match intensity.
The dry wickets, quality of the bowling and the fact that all of your gear is soaking wet means that it’s a fantastic challenge.
By the end of the training the ground is littered with empty water and electrolyte bottles. It’s still not uncommon for guys to lose up to 4kg during a three hour training.