First BLACKCAPS camp - 11 August 2021

I managed to get down to Lincoln today (11 Aug). Was due to fly out at 5pm however with aircraft maintenance the flight got cancelled and pushed out to 845pm so I didn't get down to Lincoln till 1030pm which was a bit of a shame because I was hoping to catch up with Gary Stead (BLACKCAPS Head Coach) and go out with him for dinner just to go over details around the tour.

The next day I was up early at 5am as could not sleep. My mind was kind of buzzing with questions, thoughts, and anticipation of what the day was going to hold. That nervous energy I like as it means I will be prepared and means I care. It is this anticipation and buzz that I crave as a coach as I genuinely believe that is when I am at my best. Handling challenges by remaining calm and thinking clearly on my feet. When I woke, I did feel a little bit queasy from the Covid jab the day before, but the nurse yesterday said that would be expected. Caught up with Gary around 8am and some of the other high-performance staff up in the New Zealand Cricket office, Paul Wiseman, Shane Bond, Bryan Stronach, Dayle Shackle, Jonny Rea, and Sandri Kingi. Then Gary and I went to discuss more details around the tour, how selection will work, Tom Latham (tour Captain) and I would work closely with Gary and his support staff in New Zealand. Went over a bit more information around player roles and team composition of the players selected. We went through a lot of data and stats around the games in Bangladesh that have been played recently in the Aussie series. What the key elements were for successful 2020. That was good to have a look over everything as it was all on similar lines to what I have done with Wellington and some of the work I put in around analysing and preparation. It made it all remarkably familiar with how I have operated in the past. Went over the?training environment and having a fair bit of structure with regards to setting up game scenarios and fielding stations earlier in the week and then gradually giving ownership to the players closer to the game day and that again is very similar to my philosophy and how I try and work with the training in Wellington so that’s good to hear we on very similar wavelengths and how we think about the game and how we think about preparation.

Next did some media and photoshoots, was a great feeling pulling on BLACKCAPS kit for the first time, made me feel special. Talking to media about the opportunity and challenges made me get goosebumps over my body. Was fair to say I was pumped for it!

After that was all done, I was over to the training marquee, it was hot and has a glasshouse effect when sunny, got up to 29° so it is certainly good for acclimatisation and the players had done an extremely hard running session in the morning with Chris Donaldson, so they were cooked during the session. Was good though as it is exactly what we will get overseas so great preparation for the players. The training was a good chance for me just to chat casually to guys and in some instances to reacquaint myself with some of them, meet some for the first time and just have some general conversations around the tour.

I found it a valuable experience for me to have that time with them individually and start building relationships and bonds with them because over the next eight weeks we will have a lot of time together and it is where those bonds are going to become beneficial because we will go through challenges individually and as a team that is for sure. The nature of cricket with its ups and downs and working through those together alongside each other is particularly important. Today was also good just listening and taking a step back and hearing conversations the players had with each other around how they want to play.

Back to Wellington in the evening and drained from absorbing it all in but pleased the journey is starting to get moving.

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