Heather Knight’s India diary

1 March 2010

Heather Knight from Cardiff MCCU has recently been called up to the England Women's tour of India. Below is the first of her updates.
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Having meant to be writing this blog for an England Women’s Academy tour to India in March, here I am three weeks earlier on my debut England tour in a hot and humid India. The last few days have been a bit hectic to say the least! The call came whilst I was representing Cardiff MCC University, in the MCC Universities indoor cricket women’s finals at Lords. I was told to jump on a plane the next day as, unfortunately, wicket-keeper and opening batsmen Sarah Taylor had picked up a hip injury and the squad required batting cover.

Heather receives her England cap from Captain Charlotte Edwards.

After some rushed phone calls and emails, some late night packing and quick goodbyes, I was on an early morning coach from Cardiff to Heathrow, ready to catch the long flight over to India. I met up with the squad in Bangalore airport only to jump on another plane to Visakhapatdam where the next two One-Day Internationals were to take place. Keeping awake at this point was starting to get challenging! Getting through from arrivals to departures at Bangalore airport was a tad tricky, as the boarding pass was in Sarah’s name – following much persuasion from team manager Ray the armed Indian guard eventually withdrew arms and let me through.

 

My first day with the squad was fortunately a rest day where I caught up on some missed sleep, started to get to know the team and prepare myself to train hard the next day. It’s great being in the presence of double world champions and ashes winners, hopefully I can learn as much as possible about how the team operates and of course what it’s like playing in India; the venue for the next ODI World Cup in 2013.