'We are very hurt by the negativity of a lot of the Pakistan media' © Getty Images

Karachi-Dubai-Dubai-London; overnight in London and, finally, London to Port of Spain, Trinidad. As we touched down in Trinidad it was a great relief, obviously the team were happy to have arrived but all were tired and ready to go to bed, it was therefore with some surprise that we were all up and ready to go at 5am in the morning!

Obviously the huge change in time and jet lag had conspired to knock our body clocks for six. We had organised a pool session for noon but could have done it at 9am! We are off to have a light training run in the afternoon followed by a game of football and then back to bed. In fact I went to bed at 6pm waking up at 5am but feel a lot better.

We had our first practice 45 minutes out of Port-of-Spain at Couva, the home of the Trinidad cricket academy, where an old friend and colleague of mine coaches - Bernard Julien. The pitches were okay and the bowlers and batters shook the jet lagged cobwebs out of their system and had a good practice. An excellent fielding practice showed that the boys are very determined to do well out here.

I should mention that we are very hurt by the negativity of a lot of the Pakistan media and ex players and it is worth noting that this side has represented Pakistan a lot in the last three years. We also hear with pleasure that Sami and Yasir Arafat will replace Shoaib and Asif. Indeed there has been a lot of conjecture as to whether Asif and Shoaib would or would not make it. It is good that we know all know exactly where we stand and we do not have injuries or drug-related issues to worry the team. It is certainly a motivating factor for the boys that they know they carry the responsibility of the Pakistan nation on their shoulders and that they now have to get stuck in.

Monday March 5

Early to bed again and up on Monday for a good practice. Everyone looks good. The afternoon was free so I slipped off to watch Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore - two of my favourite actors - in a feel-good movie called Music & Lyrics. I enjoyed it thoroughly and, while not really good enough for an Oscar, it is nice to feel good and come out of a movie house with a smile! The evening was dominated by a trip to Yousu’f friends who run a Lebanese restaurant 10 minutes out of town. The only trouble was that our vbs driver must have taken the wrong route as we took 45 minutes to get there! The food was excellent and the boys had a good, fun evening.

	'His appealing for the LBW decisions placed umpires under enormous pressure; it was almost an art form' © Getty Images

I am among many cricket folk that would like to pay my respects to the finest legspin bowler in the history of the game. His retirement marks the end of an era. No bowler has dominated world cricket as he has done and I doubt if there will be another as good.

It is worth understanding why Shane Warne is so good and for that you will have to understand the hours of work he put into his trade. For those who do not understand cricket and its nuances and the intricacies of leg spin bowling, it is the hardest art form of the game, it is extremely difficult to master and indeed to teach. Warne, it would seem, was a natural from a young age but spent his life perfecting the art. Indeed what drove him to become this perfectionist, what gave him the drive to become better than anyone else? Only he knows!

Did he set goals? Did he know something that we lesser mortals didn't? Without asking him we will not be able to unravel the answer to these questions. What we do know is that he became the greatest legspinner ever and tormented and teased the greatest players of this era.
Like every bowler he had bad days especially against India in India but as he strives for his 700th Test wicket he becomes in my eyes like Brian Lara scoring 400 runs in a Test innings, as the song goes 'Simply the best'!

The ball that defined his career is the ball that Mike Gatting missed and was bowled off stump. Sounds rather mundane and happens quite a few times during every cricket match but this ball was different. It was special. Why was it so special? For those of you who watch tennis, players of the caliber of Federer, Borg, Sampras, McEnroe had the greatest skill of top spin - it is spin imparted on the ball with a racket. Great golfers have this wonderful ability to impart back spin. Top spin allows the ball to dip, swerve and stay in when all of us think the ball is going out. It defines greatness in many sports.

The ball that bowled Gatting at Old Trafford swerved and dipped so much because Warne was able to impart such a high degree of spin on the ball with his wrist and fingers. To us all it looked like an innocuous ball drifting down the leg side. Gatting too moved his front leg diagonally across because of its leg side direction. It was a natural but fatal mistake. He was hoping the leg would protect the leg stump. Unfortunately it allowed the ball to pitch probably six inches outside leg stump, from there it spun nearly 14 inches clipping the top of off stump and the story of Warne began.

	The ICC's pitch specialist Andy Atkinson and Tom Moody inspect the Brabourne surface © AFP

In 1999 South Africa toured New Zealand and the first two Tests ended in high-scoring draws. At Auckland, Darryl Cullinan overtook Graeme Pollock’s highest score for South Africa scoring 274 runs. At Canterbury, Herschelle Gibbs scored a magnificent 200. It is worth recalling that both these pitches were treated with glue technology! I questioned then if this was good for the game, and now I repeat this question.

Earlier in 1998 at the Commonwealth Games South Africa won the gold medal after playing a semi-final against Sri Lanka which went down to the wire on a pitch that crumbled and broke up. In the final, our pre-match talks revolved around batting first because the pitch favoured the team batting first.

However, after taking a look at the pitch we noticed that it had been treated with glue and it was obvious that it would not break up as it had earlier. So Shaun Pollock, on winning the toss, put the Australians in and South Africa went on to win batting second.

The glue causes a sheen on the surface and is slightly tacky to walk on and it definitely changes the surface. It also hides the fact that the groundsman has not been able to prepare the pitch properly because of weather, over use or in New Zealand’s case Rugby Union being played on the same surface.

Cricket is a great game to play and a fun one to comment on. I would like my blog to reflect the views of the playing and coaching fraternity and I will try and cover as many topics as possible. Including Pakistan, drugs in sport, modern training methods for cricketers, the itineraries that put players in the red zone as far as injuries are concerned and to explain the many myths that surround cricketing technique.

Those of you who wish to know more about this game and want to voice their opinion are most welcome to let me know what you are thinking. I will try and address these issues as well as others that occur.

Let's get "stuck" into the first one!

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