Hello everyone, just back home from another 30 degrees day here in Colombo, exciting news to tell if you have not heard already via our facebook page.

Tuesday 18th January 2011, Practice and Temple Visit in Colombo

Had another great training session today, the boys were a bit stiff from their match the day before, but a really good warm-up and stretch soon got them back on track again. “Boomer” our Global Cricket School fielding coach organized for some tidy net bowlers to come help out, this really helped reduce the work load, in particular on our elder statesmen! Talking of “Boomer”, he really has added an extra dimension to the coaching squad, he is great with the guys and experienced as well, he is fielding coach to the Sri Lankan T20 Champions!

After training it was back to the hotel for a bit of R&R;, I actually managed to teach Naveed Mughal how to swim, so I’m claiming that as well as his newly found cover drive! In the evening we popped into a local Buddhist temple, a completely new experience for all of us. I don’t think I have ever felt so moved by a collection of buildings before, but really you have seen it to believe it! A great cultural experience for the boys!

   

Wednesday 19th January 2011, DCF vs BRC Academy, at BRC

Glorious sunshine in Colombo, a three minute ride to the BRC ground (trust me that is very unusual in the land of the traffic jam!), nice facilities and wicket, and we are asked if we want to bat……Paradise! So the Vikings got off to another nervy start, openers Troels Thøgersen (1) and Yasir Iqbal (15) started and departed for the visitors, and we were all shocked when the inform Freddie Klokker went for a duck, 40 for 3. However, this is a new generation of Vikings, and Rizwan Mahmood (77), Carsten Petersen (98 no) and Naveed Mughal (40) all batted with confidence and style to see the Vikings to an impressive 293 for 8 at the completion of their 50 over’s.

In reply the young BRC Academy batsman all went for their shots in an attempt to chase down the visitors total. For the Vikings, Aftab Ahmed bowled an impressive wicket taking spell (4 for 40) and he was extremely well supported by the medium pace of Jacob Larsen (1 for 36) and the spin of Bashir Shah (0 – 36), this in particular being a very good spells of bowling as they helped bring the visitors right back into the game. The game eventually fizzled out as the home side amassed 238 for 6, Manuj (85) and Nashantra (75) being the pick of the emerging BRC academy talent.

National Coach Simon Talbot was again very pleased with his side’s efforts. “ Another great performance by the boys today, after just four days outside and in very alien conditions we have shown what a powerful batting unit we are beginning to be! Rizwan, Carsten and Naveed were fantastic today, and they were very well supported by the other lads throughout. We again struggled to find our line early in the innings, but Aftab, Jacob and Bashir were superb in their aggression, control and movement today, and we are continuing to improve game by game in the field. We are all now really looking forward to the trip to Hong Kong tomorrow, it was nice to come here to Sri Lanka and perform so well, it has put us in a great position for our WCL Div 3 campaign. A great big thank you to all here in Sri Lanka for making our stay so wonderful, we look forward to coming back, hopefully sooner rather than later.”