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The European Academy is well underway at Loughborough and ICC Regional Development Officer Philip Hudson is very pleased with the progress being made by the players.

One of the Irish participants, Gareth McKee, has written a diary of the first week at the Academy. An excerpt is shown below and the full article can be found on the ECC Website: www.ecc-cricket.com

Monday 20th - The day started rather early with breakfast at eight am. This was followed by an introduction to the world class facilities at the E.C.B National Academy. Our first session came at 9.15 with E.C.B Academy physiologist Richard Smith talking to us about the physical attributes required to make it at the highest level. This was quite interesting and opened a few eyes. The next session was to be one of the hardest I have ever been involved in. The program wrote ‘TEAM FITNESS CHALLENGE’. This was a series of gruelling physical exercises which pushed the body to its extreme with some boys not managing to complete it. But I can say that all the Irish lads completed it with Gavin McKenna coming third overall.

That night we got a talk from Richard Done (ICC High Performance Manager), who is an Australian who has worked on the Australian Cricket Academy and for the state of Queensland. This was an extremely interesting session and helped us understand what is going on in other ICC development regions around the world.

Wednesday 22nd - The day started with another bowling session giving us the chance to work on a few things with the seamers. Again we worked with Roland Lefebvre which was great as he was passing on his knowledge of the game whilst also adding in how he had Matt Hayden out lbw in the world cup but the umpire never gave it.

Thursday 23rd - Saw the arrival of Brian O Rourke, Ireland’s U19 coach. Brian has a good knowledge of most of the players at this year Academy and wasted no time in setting up fitness and fielding sessions that proved hard work for all of us. Perhaps the biggest arrival of the day was that of former England captain Mike Gatting. The morning session consisted of Mike taking a session on how to play spin! This was great for both the batters and bowlers as the batsmen got an insight on his thoughts on playing spin whilst the spinners got to bowl at him although he did make them look very average!! As he would. In the evening he also took a session on captaincy and leadership. We also had a session on playing fast bowling which was quite funny seeing all the guys ducking and diving with balls flying past their noses. The session was run by Gordon Lord has been working with all the batsmen. The information that Gordon has passed onto all the batsmen will definitely make us all better players.

Friday 24th The morning session started off with a session with Joce on Lifestyle Management. Throughout the week we had seen England fast bowler Simon Jones doing his rehab work with the Academy physio’s. One of the physio’s asked Philip Hudson whether Simon could have a bowl to prove his fitness for the remaining games against Australia and Bangladesh in the one-day series currently being played. For the next 15 minutes I had the pleasure of facing Simon as I was currently one of the guys batting at the time. The first ball he bowled was only off a few steps and that flew past at a good pace. The next thing he did made me slightly nervous as he got the tape measure out and measured his full run-up! A few of the guys looked at each other and chuckled. Cheers guys. It was a great experience and one I will never forget. That night we had a player’s forum where we were asked to provide our views on the week currently passed. So far it has been a great experience and we are all enjoying ever moment of it. My highlight has definitely been the opportunity I was given to face Simon Jones and I am looking forward to our games commencing over the next couple of days.