“I have been here in Adelaide for just over three months now and I am still enjoying my time here especially being an Englishman during the 3-1 Ashes win!
“During the last eight weeks since my last diary update I feel like I have been working and training hard both on my fitness and cricket work. I was lucky enough to do a lot of bowling with the England players during the Adelaide Test Match and do some work with England spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed and also do some bowling with the great Shane Warne which I felt was really beneficial for me and I learnt a lot.
“I got some great advice from both Mushtaq and Warne and two things stuck in my mind. Mushtaq told me to always believe that you’re better than the batsman and never worry about the consequences. The advice from Warne was more technical, he gave me some very good advice on my run up and where I was landing in the crease.
“I am still really enjoying the training here at the academy. The weeks are filled by 15-20 cricket and conditioning sessions a week, which is up to 40 hours a week. During the sessions there is always a good friendly environment and all the lads get on really well which makes the sessions fly over.
“I feel like I am progressing in my fitness, when I first arrived in Adelaide in October my yo-yo test score was at 19 now I am pushing up for levels 22 and 23. But, my skin folds have gone up from 63 to 68 after the Christmas break, I had too much Christmas lunch and too many Yorkshire puddings! So, that means I’m going to have to try to get that back down to 63 or even lower before I go back to England.
“In my last four games for Port Adelaide I have had the chance to bat higher up the order, batting at number three, which I have been lucky enough to take my chance scoring a few runs including a 100, 60 and a 70,so I am hoping the runs keep on coming.
“Over the Christmas period it was nice to have a few weeks off training and take my mind off cricket, especially as my girlfriend was visiting. It was a bit strange to have a Christmas in the sun and walking down the beach seeing people having BBQ’S in their t-shirts and shorts was a bit different from the snow back home!
“For New Year my girlfriend and I went up to Sydney to catch up with some friends from back home, we had a great time, it was my first visit to Sydney so was good to go there and see other parts of Australia. We saw in the New Year on a boat and went under the Sydney harbour bridge and had a great experience seeing all the wonderful fireworks on show.
“But for the time being it’s back to work and trying to keep improving my game. I want to go back home to Durham in 7 weeks time a better player after spending time here at the Darren Lehmann Academy.”