Having completed our first full day at the Global Cricket School in Pune I thought it best to drop a note back home.

In brief; training took place beside the two Pathan brothers this morning (Ishant stopping HIS net to admire Louise), the facilities and coaching are second to none, its beautifully warm . . . and theres no rain! Jealous? You should be!

I was lucky enough to be drafted into the travelling party at a relatively late stage but I am hugely grateful to Nigel and Brian O'Rourke for this opportunity. My role is to provide management of the girls and to pass on my knowledge of the game that I have acquired from playing international cricket over the last 12 years. Its a job I am relishing!

Our tour started bright and early on Saturday morning, 5am to be precise, in a very chilly Dublin Airport. Our bleary eyed team assembled was as follows; Lousie McCarthy (Pembroke CC) Shauna Kavanagh (Pembroke CC) Melissa Scott-Hayward (Leinster CC) Laura Delany (Leinster CC) Laura Cullen (Clontarf CC) All under the tutelage of coach Nigel Pyne, who has coached and nurtured these girls over the last number of years through the development squad programmes. He knows their games inside-out so Ive a feeling there'll be no cutting corners for these girls over the next ten days of cricket!

Not only has Nigel brought his coaching talents on this tour, but also it seems his bad luck. For the second year in a row his bag made a no show in arrivals, but this year he obviously jinxed Melissa as well. With two bags down we all clubbed together to get training underway by Sunday afternoon.

As with last year we are training at the Ponna Club. A huge, first class ground with over ten grass nets to play with, all under the eagle eye of the Global Cricket School head coach, Umesh Batwal. There was no time waisted in getting the girls into the nets for a hit to acclimatise to the conditions.

Facing the local boys, all spinners, some turning it square, the girls had a shaky start. It was starting to hit home that this week was going to be no walk in the park.

Day two started with an intensive morning session. The girls were paired up and did an hours session of top hand only batting with skinny bats and golf ball sized tennis balls. The application was excellent and the improvement by the end was clearly visible.

Into the nets they headed to put into practice what had been learnt. There was again some scratchy moments against the very talented local lads. However, by the afternoon sessions it was clear that the girls had hit their straps. Clearly more relaxed and fully adapted to the conditions and bowlers some excellent cricket was seen by all.

We finished up with a fielding session, focusing on throwing the stumps down, and particularly focusing on our technique. I was able to join in for a bit of run around and it was great to see first hand, Umesh's knowledge and ability to break things down into the simplest from.

Umesh, Nigel and for my part are expecting a lot from the girls. The phrase, out of our comfort zone, has been coined a lot in our meetings and general chat. These ten days are offering these girls, and Nigel, and myself, a level of intensity and commitment to all aspects of the game that is rarely experienced in any other situation.

The amount that can be learnt from this week will be down to each individual, but Ive a strong feeling it will be an awful lot. I'll check in again with an update in a couple of days. Hope its stopped raining back home!!

 Clare Shillington

Ed's Note: The good news is that yes it has stopped raining - the bad news is that it's snowing instead!