Kate Cross Blog: Heat is on ahead of the inaugural Women's Big Bash

Hello from the 'other side'!

Welcome to my first very warm, very humid, Brisbane Blog. Lauren Winfield and I landed safely in Australia last week, ready to report for Women's Big Bash League duty with Brisbane Heat.

Leaving for the airport at 5am on Monday morning after having to defrost the car in -2C temperature, you can imagine the stark contrast that hit us when we got off the plane on Tuesday evening to find it was 30C! Not that we are complaining or anything, but talk about different ends of the spectrum.

I was a bit concerned about Lauren going into the flight - she isn't the best flyer and is notorious for struggling to nod off, so I was well prepared to be a calming, sleepy influence. How wrong was I!

We were lucky that the plane wasn't full so we had three seats between the two of us. We hadn't even taken off and she was knocking some ZZZZs out…

She woke up when we got to Brisbane!  Not bad for a girl who "can't sleep on planes"!  But worst of all, she had cornered me. I had the window seat and had no way of getting out, which wasn't all that bad until a viscous nose bleed hit me.

PANIC! I had blood pouring out of my face and had to clamber over sleeping beauty, dripping blood everywhere to get to the toilet (which looked like a scene from a horror film once I'd finished). Whoops, sorry Lauren!

But we made it, and what a sight it was coming into Brisbane… 

Our New Team

After meeting the Brisbane Heat girls briefly when we landed, Lauren and I then split up as we are staying with different people over here. 

Lauren is staying with Yorkshire team mate Beth Mooney and I am with Jess Jonassen, which is brilliant until you find her Women's Ashes winning medal/photos all over the house… Pretty sure she has put more up just for my arrival!

The following morning we had a 5am alarm to head into the city for a Business Chicks breakfast where we met the team sponsors and picked up some free granola from the speaker, Carolyn Creswell, who owns muesli business Carman's. Bonus! 

The Heat girls have all been really welcoming and looked after us so well so far. We had a trip to the Gold Coast on Thursday morning to have a look at some of the beaches and learn first-hand that you need to be rigorous when applying sun cream over here - certainly don't forget your feet! Following this trip, we subsequently learnt the importance of aloe vera!

Back to Business

Lauren and I got shown around the Allan Border Field which is where the Queensland Fire team trains. We are extremely lucky that this is also the location for Cricket Australia's National Performance Centre. The facilities are incredible, and it was noticeable how hard the girls train over here. 

Friday was another 5am alarm ready for some fitness...  We started with a 'get to know your team' quiz to gain time advantage and then were sent off in teams with a map which had different locations where we had certain exercises to complete. 

Even at 6am, the heat is up at 28C and humidity always seems to be up close to 80-90 per cent. So you can imagine it was a sweaty affair. It's something I'm going to have to get used to over the next couple of months! 

Turn Up The Heat

We played two T20 club fixtures at the weekend. It was good to get back out on the park for my first game since the end of August. It was also good prep for our last week leading into the start of the inaugural WBBL.

The Heat's first game is on Saturday in Melbourne and everyone is pumped to get going. All the teal kit has now arrived and the team are ready to take on the Melbourne Stars at Junction Oval next week!

Make sure you pop down if you're in Melbourne… Or if you're not (sorry England fans!) you can follow the team on Twitter using @HeatWBBL #TurnUpTheHeat

Crossy