Today is Saturday morning and the first scheduled day of the tournament with all teams due to be practicing outdoors however, we find ourselves at Indoor Cricket Guernsey with the sun beaming in through the windows.

The weather over the last 48 hours has been highly changeable swinging from bright warm sunshine to Armageddon style thundershowers. Wisely the tournament officials have guided us indoors, allowing us uninterrupted practice and the grounds staff more time on the grounds.

It’s a real challenge as a player and of course for management competing within tournaments as there are so many potential distractions on the periphery. Everything from weather, net run rates, duckworth lewis, rearranged fixtures, disciplinary hearings, visa issues, injuries, media coverage and the local ales can detract from the required on pitch performance.

We’ve read about Nigeria’s visa issues and whether they’d arrive on time, thankfully it appears they will and if the weather holds all will go ahead as planned. Whilst I’ve managed to stay quite busy and away from idle chit chat it certainly set tongues wagging locally as people speculated whether or not the African nation would arrive.

Guernsey has had Justin Meades fracture his thumb. He has a fitness test later this morning which we hope he comes through. Meadesey is an important member of our squad as he’s real character and definitely someone you want alongside you in a battle and certainly not against. Fingers crossed!

The team had a meal on Thursday evening at the Rockmount, the best pub on the Island. The pub is situated on the west coast and is 10 meters from the beach. It has the best sunset in the World and is truly a great place to spend a summer’s evening. The Guernsey squad took in the surroundings, the wonderful food as we watched the slightly less wonderful Leeds vs the far from wonderful Milwall. Whoever named soccer the beautiful game would have been forced to eat their words as an appetizer to the sizeable steaks served to us.

Over the last few days I have cocooned myself in the GCB office at the indoor centre which is approximately six big strides from the nets. I have had quite a few hours just hitting tennis balls, throwing at stumps and the odd session on a machine. Anything really to keep my mind on what I can control and how I can best deliver when required.

Tonight we have a Vin d’honneur (a Guernsey tradition) at Castle Cornet as the deputy bailiff, Sir Geoffrey Rowland, welcomes all the teams to the Island and officially opens the event. Sir Geoffrey is a keen cricket fan and knows his stuff so I look forward to his welcome speech.

This afternoon my wife is playing tennis so I will have some time out from cricket and watch her getting stressed. I am very lucky with Chantelle. Not only does she accompany me on the odd age group tour but she is also fiercely competitive, hates losing and is a general nightmare during her tournaments and therefore understands a little more than most. I’m hoping that continues as I no doubt will be pain to live with over the next 8 days.

Sunday we face Japan at College Field in our first game. Everyone is really looking forward to it and after 7 months of talking, practicing, planning and speculating we are here and can now get on with the best bit, playing cricket.