Taking the Michael - Abraham

Michael Clarke lost his seat on the plane, Paul Collingwood his luggage. Tim explains...

Tim Abraham is back on tour with the England team. Follow his World Cup diary right here on skysports.com and watch his regular updates from the Caribbean on Sky Sports News...

Days 1-7

Days 7-12: After England's final warm-up game in Grenada it was time to up sticks and move to Jamaica for the opening ceremony and the party really starting.

So far our travel days have not been that bad, but sooner or later I knew we would encounter some problems and lo and behold we did.

It was a 7am check-in for our transfer flight and having done that, the plane was then delayed for a couple of hours, so myself and my cameraman Chris decided to nip upstairs for a coffee. Well no sooner had we got served than we were paged over the airport PA calling us to our flight.

So, we nipped back downstairs (it is not Heathrow by any stretch of the imagination) to check-in, only to be told by the nice young lady that, in the 30 seconds it had taken us to get there, our tickets had been sold to someone else and the flight was full.

We protested that we had been sat there for hours and came as quickly as we could, but in that laid-back Caribbean way, she was having none of it. Then, lo and behold, the England and Australian players and staff turned up for their connecting flights and all of a sudden she had someone far more important to talk to than me and Chris.

So there we were, boarding cards in hand, incredulous as this lady walked away to make sure her important passengers all got on their flights OK. But much to our surprise, she came skipping back across the tarmac telling us she had found us seats on the next flight and to get on the waiting plane.

Great, I thought, but little did I know that our seats came at the expense of a couple of the Australia/England party. One was England physio Dean Conway and the other was none other than Aussie batsmen Michael Clarke!

You can imagine our embarrassment as we got on. Chris dived for the nearest seat, while I kept my head down and shuffled quietly towards the back of the plane, getting plenty of stick of course. When I eventually looked up, the only empty seat was next to Adam Gilchrist (presumably where Clarke would have been sat), so there I was having taken Michael Clarke's seat sitting next to the Aussie legend.

I've got to say Gilchrist is a smashing bloke and we had a good chat for the two-and-half-hour flight. He had arrived late because of the birth of his third child and although he had got runs against England, he was still pretty jet-lagged and a bit all over the place.

But my embarrassment was not over. When we landed in Barbados we had to transfer to the international airport to fly to Jamaica, and England and Australia - minus Michael Clarke - were shuffled onto a bus for the transfer, with us now part of the players' party!

I am delighted to say Messrs Clarke and Conway turned up eventually and took it all rather well, particularly Dean, who as a staunch Welshman was more than happy sitting in the airport terminal watching the Six Nations rugby between Wales and Italy!

Saturday saw all the players arrive in Jamaica for the opening ceremony and it was the first time they had all touched base with one another. There was plenty of mingling going on and the friendly exchanges between Ed Joyce and Scott Styris, Middlesex colleagues, was a typical scene.

They were all staying in the same huge hotel as well and it got me thinking - and I tried to reflect it in one of my pieces to Sky Sports News - that perhaps only an Olympic Village has so many rival sportsmen mixing freely together.

Mind you, I did an interview with Michael Vaughan and he made the point that while it is nice to catch up with some friendly faces, there are one or two people you aren't that happy to see! Tim talks to Vaughan - Video

Before Sunday's Opening Ceremony we did a little shoot with a wonderful man called Dr Juice. He is the man who mixes all the fruit cocktails by the hotel pool and is everybody's friend. He was extremely pally with the India players who toured the Caribbean last summer, but in all honestly, barely a player walked pass without high-fiving him.

Dr Juice did some nice links to camera for us and actually revealed he is backing England to win!

It was then time to head off to the opening ceremony, which meant all the players getting into their number ones. It's not what you might think, but their official team clobber, blazers, ties, slacks the lot. Well, nearly all the players...

I was on my way back to my hotel room, when who should I see hanging out of his bedroom door with just a towel but Paul Collingwood!

Apparently, his luggage hadn't arrived and he didn't have any of his England gear. He clearly borrowed some, but I did hear someone remarking how he looked a little 'untidy' at the ceremony, so I'm not sure who it came from. And I would just like to confirm that I might have kicked Michael Clarke off his flight, but I had nothing to do with Paul Collingwood's luggage!

The opening ceremony was pretty spectacular and we were able to feed back from the facilities at Sabina Park, which was quite handy because Monday was another early start and a travel day.

We got to St Lucia no problem at all and joined the rest of the press corps in picking up our hire cars at the airport. While everyone was being handed keys to your standard family and two-door cars, we found ourselves with what has already been dubbed the Popemobile.

It is essentially a box van, which is handy for the equipment, but does make us stand out. It is tempting to stand in the back and give a serene wave to the passers by as we make our way round St Lucia.

Tuesday was England's first net and I've got to say they - particularly Freddie and Kevin Pietersen - were smashing the ball to all parts. It's great to see and make sense given the short boundaries at the Beausejour Stadium - but believe me it has been a case of diving for cover as we report back from the sessions.

I also interviewed Liam Plunkett and I've got to say for one of the newer members of the England team and a young man, he is becoming a very polished performer in front of the camera. They do get media training from the ECB but a lot of it is done on the job and they know that when we speak to them for Sky Sports News, we are not trying to stitch them up. Tim talks to Plunkett - Video

Which is why Paul Nixon was happy to do a piece for us. As a fitness fanatic he was more than happy to join me for one of my morning runs along the beach and I thought it would be nice to end the shot with both of us running off and diving into the sea. So I told him last one in the sea is a sissy and set off.

What I didn't know was that Nixon was going to let me get ahead and try and pull my shorts down. Much to my relief, he didn't quite manage it, but for a moment I thought the same backside that had taken Michael Clarke's place on the plane, was going to be plastered all over Sky Sports News!