Young guns hit England's south

This is an exciting time for all of us as we get an opportunity to go overseas and expand our knowledge in different conditions and test ourselves with the Elite International Cricket Academy at Hampshire’s ground, the Ageas Bowl, in Southampton.

The program started in April when the boys (Ben Ashkenazi, Tom Andrews and Sean Willis) attended a camp in Brisbane which included some testing with a 2k time trial, strength testing and some education lessons about cooking.

While they were in Brisbane, I was in Perth with the Australian U19 squad finishing off the series with a 3-2 win – which could be the reason why I'm not a good cook.

Week One

As we packed our bags and got ready to fly out, there was a slight setback with Tom Andrews’ visa being delayed, which meant Tom had to stay in Melbourne for a couple more days.

So Sean and I departed from Sydney on a long flight over which was pretty much him complaining about not being able to sleep and me having a whole row to myself on both flights.

In London we were welcomed by the Director Richard Browning, who we couldn't miss with the brightest red jumper on. We made our way to the Rose Bowl – our new training venue for the next few weeks – in a van which we thought might struggle to get us to the ground.

All the necessary meet and greets happened before we went to the house that all of us boys will be staying in.

We were also staying with New Zealand academy member Josh Finnie, who we played against in the Under 19 World Cup, and for some reason Josh took the worst room in the house.

Willis also missed the best room in the house which I suppose meant for me was up for takings.

The next day Richard was kind enough to give us the day off to settle over jet lag and get some stuff sorted.

In this time we found out that Josh didn't know what an antenna was or how the fridge worked, which meant he had to keep buying new milk every day.

Turns out the power point wasn't turned on.

This day was also one of the coldest days I have ever had with it being nine degrees the whole day.

The next couple of days both Benny and Tom arrived, meaning Josh (who Sean and I built a strong bond with) had to go.

We all agreed to get all the necessary items at the grocery store which for some of us is an eye-opener as most of us don’t do grocery shopping.

We found a lot of items in the store cheaper to Australia but some things like orange juice turned out to be $10 for 2 litres, which Benny and I couldn’t believe.

We all have been given cars over here which also meant all of us drive to our clubs that we will be playing at (Sean Willis – Ventnor, Ben Ashkenazi – Lymington, Tom Andrews – Bashley and myself at Henley).

The clubs were all welcoming to all of us, and also helpful pointing us in the right direction about where to go around Southampton.

Tom was the only one who didn’t get to meet his club because of his late arrival with his visa. He arrived on Friday to find out he was playing the next day as the competition round games started.

Saturday was the first game for Tom, Benny and Willis as my competition doesn't start till the following week which meant I had a friendly.

All the boys said they enjoyed the game with Sean scoring 75 and Benny and Tom taking a couple of wickets.

Quick Single: Ben Ashkenazi talks after his debut with Leamington

Over the weekend I managed to roll my ankle running in the streets of Southampton trying to stay fit.

As all the staff over here are awesome to work with they were helpful in getting me the right medical attention.

Some, like Richard and Matt Drakes (batting coach), questioned if I rolled it while I was out dancing.

Week Two

We’ve started to get a bit of a routine during the week going, including net sessions and some down time to get a few things done around our training.

As we have had a few net session this week, we were quick to realise that Richard is so far the quickest side-arm bowler that we have faced.

He has hit at least one of us each net session without a doubt and was quoted as saying: “If I could bowl with a side-arm i would have taken 100 Test wickets in 25 games”.

One thing all the boys have noticed is the wickets have a little bit more in them and the ball swings a lot more compared to the Kookaburra balls back home.

Benny especially had us all bamboozled in the nets for the first few days, but as we spoke to a few of the Hampshire Academy boys which recently played in the U19s tour in Perth (Bradley Taylor, Mason Crane, Joe Weatherly), all said that their decks are the flattest pitches we will bat on.

I think they were stitching us up.

Also towards the end of the week Benny, Josh and myself got offered an opportunity to be a part of an advert over here. Tommy and Willis weren’t included because they were apparently too good for the job, though a rumour went around that they weren’t good looking enough.

Willis quickly told everyone that wasn’t the reason.

I learnt during the advert not to leave your phone with the costumes ladies as they get a bit snap happy with the camera leaving some photos on my phone but all of us boys enjoyed the experience.

Image Id: ~/media/E859FB4EE2194F31815DAB96A57CE73D

While we did the shoot Tommy and Sean got the opportunity to go around Southampton and check out some of the scenic views and shops. As some of us have noticed there are castles left in the middle of the towns but overall it’s not a bad spot to be in with plenty of shops, movies and restaurants.

The weekend of my first round of competitive cricket and all the boys’ second round of cricket arrived. Sean Willis, who was coming off 75 the week before, scored a important knock of 79* as he saw his team home against St Cross Cricket Club.

My club Henley started the season with a win with myself getting 58* and taking 2 - 35 off nine overs. Tom Andrews’ team Bashley lost but Tom bowled seven overs for one wicket and Benny’s team lost as well with Benny bowling 10 overs for one wicket.

Week Three

We had two rest days which allowed some of us to go exploring around Southampton, do some shopping and get up to date with everything happening back home. Some of the boys went for a run, and unlike me they are a bit coordinated and don't roll an ankle on the pavement.

 There was a common theme which I don't think any of us realised until we checked out Instagram accounts – we all took a photo of the same statue.

Back to the gym with more strength testing this week which included max deadlift, max push ups, max chin ups, and a few core testing exercises that strength and conditioning coaches like to give special names for.

All of us boys were surprised about the results with the amount we could lift. The bodybuilder Benny was the best at it all as he has been lifting since he was six.

The next couple of days were similar with gym then training and both of these sessions are ramped up with skills being tested, but after a hard strength session we all had an easy day with a recovery session. The next day was indoors due to the weather but we have been lucky so far here considering the group last year weren't even playing games yet due to the rain.

Also on Friday was Hampshire’s first game of the T20 competition which Sean went to and enjoyed the win that Hampshire had. 

The next round of cricket came for all of us boys and everyone was excited to play some cricket. Sean’s averaging 152 for his club at the moment, and Benny took five wickets for his club. Unfortunately for me being injury prone at the moment, I hurt my groin.

Also on the weekend the boys played in a Norfolk XI vs Combined Services XI match which was held at the special ground Arundel Castle. I had to sit out with injury, but all the other boys did well with Tom and Benny taking wickets and Sean opening the batting and getting some more runs to add to his tally this season.

Week Four

The next day (Monday) we had off, but instead of sleeping in I got woken by the smoke alarm going off, which led to the batteries being pulled out in frustration.

The blame at the moment for this is steam, not the burning of anything, which is hard to believe when cooking an omelet.

The main challenge over here for us is the cooking and cleaning side of things which most haven't done a great deal of being at home with parents looking after us.

Some like me, who can’t cook anything if it isn't on the BBQ, settle for Indian and sushi or whatever the other boys cook. There has been some testing dishes produced from the boys but the main ones at the moment have come from Sean and Tom mastering their specialty pasta dishes.

This week sees us welcome Alex Blackwell and Erin Osborne into the EICA Academy to join us. I think they were excited to join the academy but were not convinced with the new Richard Browning special Snapbacks.

The start of the week consisted of the week one gym program which was based off recent strength testing and a skills session. This was hard for me because I love to hit cricket balls all day and I had to sit and watch. The main focus for me is doing all the rehab to recover from this injury and get back out there playing.