Dave Currie
23 August 2010: BLACKCAPS manager Dave Currie gives us an behind the scenes insight from inside the dressing room.
It has been a frustrating week; a great win over India the team was followed by a disappointing performance against Sri Lanka and then we had our third match of the tri-series twice washed out with rain.
It has been unseasonably wet with the monsoon rain not normally arriving until October. Because of this have had to be a little creative with some of our training sessions. Stronny has developed a programme that will have the players peaking at the ICC World Cup next year and includes low, medium and high intensity weeks of training. Players wear GPS units at all training sessions to ensure they cover the km’s applicable to that week and days programme. The kilometers they have to cover is based on the distance they will be expected to cover in a game. The aim is for the team to be the fittest, best fielding unit and the one that will perform most consistently under pressure when we arrive back in the sub continent next year. Most of the km’s that need to be covered in training are incorporated into the extensive daily skill sessions the team have.
This Sri Lanka tour is part of what will be an ideal buildup to the ICC World Cup. We then tour Bangladesh in October and India in November/December before playing Pakistan in The National Bank home series in January/February. We are then back to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India in February/March for the ICC World Cup. We will go into it having had extensive preparations in the conditions, and having played at most of the grounds that will be used for the event.
Dealing with rain at grounds is something that is done really well in Sri Lanka and in the sub continent generally. For our match against Sri Lanka on Thursday Ross (Taylor) won his fifth toss in a row, and decided to bat. Pete (Ingram) and BJ (Watling) were just about to cross the rope when the heavens opened. Within minutes not only the block but the whole ground is covered in massive covers held down with large tires. It’s a real mission when it’s wet and windy and is amazing how many staff are involved - an impressive operation. We arrived at the ground on Friday with the ground totally covered and a lot of cloud around. However, it cleared and amazingly we had a toss at 2:00pm. Again Ross won and decided to bowl as he was keen to chase if the game was affected by rain. As it turned out there was a break in the weather and it looked like we might get a chance to chase a total. The ground staff did a great job in getting the ground ready only to have rain return just as Pete and BJ were about to get out there.
Yesterday a few of the team went to the Golden Buddha Cave Temples which were stunning. The first of them was developed 2100 years ago and feature a 14 meter reclining Buddha and 50 other Buddha. The whole cave is covered in beautiful murals which are in remarkably good condition - it was a moving experience.
We are now focused on beating India again on Wednesday to ensure we play in the final.
Kind regards
Dave
