Day 3: Thurstan College Cricket Net Practice, Sightseeing and Dinner
Thurstan College Cricket Net Practice, Sightseeing and
Dinner:
Day
3 on our trip to Sri Lanka proved to be a very hectic one, involving early
morning swimming, lunchtime net practice, evening sightseeing and dinner out;
actually, maybe life isn’t so hard after all!
After breakfast, the boys had some downtime to
relax at the hotel, proving that an outside pool in this weather is pretty much
paradise. Fortunately, there were few holidaymakers to anger when ball games
inevitably ensued 5 minutes after entering the pool.
Paradise!
From frolicking in the pool to competitive water polo,
our imaginative boys were not short of things to do. However, they couldn’t
relax for too long, as we were soon to embark on our first serious session of
the trip: our cricketers were to attend a net practice with an ex-Sri Lankan
Ladies’ National Team coach at Thurstan College Cricket Ground in Colombo. The
host team’s 2nd XI were playing a 2-day game, so we made our way
round to the nets on the far side, and awaited our professional adviser. The
boys received advice on batting against spin; using the depth of their crease
and using your feet were top of the agenda.
Practice with ex Sri-Lankan National Ladies Coach
After
receiving tips and tricks, the boys put their new knowledge to the test. Some
might say there was a truly fine batting display occurring at Thurstan College
Cricket Ground; for a change, it wasn’t George Lavelle!!
A fine Sri
Lankan bat
Nature at
its finest!
After our net session had finished,
we loaded the coach for a tour of Colombo. There were plenty of things for us
to see. In fact, so much so that it was difficult to keep track of all the
dates being thrown at us; I thought we’d come out here to escape Mr Sutcliffe’s
History lessons, not suffer more! Our guide mentioned the Kelani River, one of
the longest in the country, he pointed out the Lotus Tower and Lotus Theatre,
along with Cricket Stadia such as the R.Premadasa Stadium. As
well as this, he explained the Port City Project, a 20km2 area where
fancy apartments and hotels are being built over the next 5 years and showed us
Independence Square, a place to remember Sri Lanka gaining Independence.
Kelani
River
Lotus Theatre
(and tuk-tuk in foreground)
Colombo
Town Hall
We ended
up finishing the city tour and evening at The Cricket Club Café, a traditional
restaurant, where the boys could enjoy 27 fish and chips dinners whilst
surrounded by cricketing memorabilia and famous faces and signatures.
The Cricket
Club Café
Back to
the hotel and straight to bed after a busy first few days. Match day tomorrow!
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