Spriegel blogs young Surrey stars’ trip to India
Published 25 January 2008
Matthew Spriegel has travelled with Surrey’s Assistant Coach Nadeem Shahid and team mates Chris Murtagh and Simon King to the World Cricket Academy in Mumbai. Here on www.surreycricket.com, you can read Spriegs' blog which details everything they have been working on since arriving last Tuesday.
Having been to India last January I knew what to expect and the conditions we would be facing out here. I think this gives me a big head start as I definitely know what I need to work on out here and how I am going to go about doing it.
We left Heathrow on Monday night, and were all a little anxious given the accident there a few days before. Murts (Chris Murtagh), who has done unbelievably well to get here considering he had his appendix out only four weeks ago, was especially concerned. Once we had got over this though, we were glad to find out that we had extra legroom for the flight, which was crucial for me, being 6ft 4ins. We passed the time on the flight playing FIFA Soccer against each other on our PSPs. Kingy (Simon King) dominated - I think I know what he has been spending most of his time doing since the end of last season.
When we arrived in Mumbai we had to wait for half an hour or so for Kyle Coetzer (Durham contracted player), who is also training at the WCA, to arrive on a later flight. During which time Nad and Murts had to push start their cab. Although quite amusing, during their celebrations surrounding their success, they almost got run over! The travelling by car in India is a surreal experience as they weave in and out of traffic, through shanty towns, using their horn every couple of seconds – it does not make for a relaxing journey and is nothing like bombing it up the M1 to Loughborough.
We arrived at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) at lunchtime and went straight out in the afternoon for nets. It was just a light session to get the plane journey out our system. Having had very little sleep that night, we all convened for a quiet dinner and then went straight to bed.
The next morning started bright and early with some small ball drills, where the balls are the size of a squash ball and the blade of the bat is the same width as the handle. This takes place on the outfield so it forces you to get into a really good position otherwise you will miss it. That afternoon the coach of Mumbai and the India Blues came down to talk to us about playing spin. I found it very interesting being a spin bowler and a top order batsman myself and I think that this sort of a talk will really help both aspects of my game. After the chat, we tried to put what we had learnt into practice, which was difficult but rewarding.
We ate in the hotel again that evening and then got together for a game of poker. It was my turn to come out on top this time, which the lads were not too happy about.
This morning we looked carefully at the sweep shot and again put what we had discussed into practice by doing some tennis ball drills and trying to hit the balls through a target. In the net session that followed we were videoed against both spin and pace bowlers and myself and Kingy were also videoed bowling. We will review the tapes tomorrow to look at areas to work on.
This afternoon was spent working on the short ball. Nad came up with the idea of using the marble floor at the back of the stadium to practice. We covered the floor in water and each took a turn at facing rubber balls thrown at us from by Nad from just 15 yards. the surface was rapid and needless to say we got pinned a few times, but nothing to worry about too much.
Only a quarter of the way into the trip and starting to feel the fatigue, but thanks to a lot of hard work with the fitness coach, Matt Church this winter, it has not affected the standard of training cricket.
I will let you know what we are getting up to in a couple of days time.
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