It has been getting warmer every day and the training is becoming more intense as we approach the last few days of training. The Somerset lads returned to England on the 21st and they will be missed, we got on well with them and it was always good to have a chat at breakfast about what went on the previous night. We would always have a story for them and they would always have one for us!

Before they left, the managing director of the Global Cricket School Mr. Sachin Bajaj arrived to training with a bag full of hand picked cricket bats at very competitive prices! Myself, Ben and Mully all took one and Peter Trego took two.

We all got feedback on our video sessions on the 21st. The main difference between English coaching methods and Indian methods is that the Indian style is much less about technique and more about perfecting your natural batting style (which suits batsmen like me!) The coaches didn't make major changes to any of our techniques, instead they gave us a few simple adjustments that they felt would benefit us and encouraged us to get into the nets and try them.

This meant more batting for us so nobody was complaining. We have all had at least 6 hours batting over the last 11 days which is roughly the same amount as we would get in 2 months worth of training with our clubs (20 mins twice a week) so hopefully we can all hit the groung running next April.

We were unable to train on Saturday as Harrow School were playing at the CCI which meant we finished up on Friday evening. Brian arrived on Friday morning with a new helmet for all of us courtesy of Paul Ryan.

We all gave the young Indian guys that helped us during the week some of our old kit as a thank you for everything they have done for us over the previous ten days, thanked our coaches and returned to our room to plan the final nights activities.

We kicked off the night with a chinese meal at the CCI and then headed to the SBX Sports Bar and onto Poly-Yester nightclub which had an uncanny resemblance to CopperFaceJacks on Harcourt Street.

Saturday morning was spend in bed recovering before we all met up with Brian at the Port of Mumbai for an optional boat cruise and some chill out time in the Taj Hotel. We were invited to Sachin Bajaj's apartment for dinner but not all of us made is as there were last minute problems with the tailor made suits we had ordered two days before. After a long day we all made our way from the CCI to the airport in the late evening.

On behalf of all of the lads I would like to thank the coaches at the Global Cricket School and also Sachin for his hospitality. These guys went out of their way to make our 12 days as productive as possible. All of have learned a lot over here and we are all better players as a result of spending time over here.

Finally, thanks a lot to Brian O'Rourke for putting the trip together, we all appreciate it.

C'mon the Village.

John Pryor