'England try to keep hanging on - and now it's my time to suffer in Sri Lanka'
Illness and run-in with local wildlife puts a temporary halt to running, says Tim
Sunday 14 December 2014 15:19, UK
Sky Sports News HQ's Tim Abraham is back on the road in Sri Lanka after illness and a run-in with the local wildlife...
The long and windy road to Kandy from Colombo is a spectacular four-hour drive heading north through the hills of Sri Lanka but I'm afraid it all passed me by as I was slumped on the back seat of our van, not feeling the best.
Traveling through the sub-continent has its health risks and sickness downfalls and this was my time to suffer.
Luckily we had got our work done, a follow-up interview with James Taylor was done at the Colombo team hotel in the morning; I felt fine then, and after we filed back to Sky, we immediately hit the road, with Ian Ward and David Lloyd for company.
I must say I have really enjoyed the commentators as travelling colleagues in Sri Lanka. As I pointed out in previous dispatches, normally it's more hectic with flights across the countries we tour, but we are much more in control going by road, and the entertainment value in the van keeps us all going.
I know I was slumped in the back, but quite clearly all were being entertained by funny videos all the way to Kandy. Once we arrived at tour hotel, in the early afternoon, I went straight to bed but my cameraman Ben Wilkins used the time to get some colour shots of Kandy. It's a spectacular setting for a city in the hills.
Tranquil
We are in the same hotel as both teams for this leg of the tour; it is a tranquil riverside setting.It's nice to have a balcony here, and I took the chance to put my running kit outside, for when I was well enough to get out and about.
After a couple of days, I was well enough to venture out to try and take in the sights and sounds of Kandy. I had not ventured out onto the balcony for a while, so went to get my running stuff, brought it into my room, but something was missing. I checked again, and there was just one running shoe. I checked my case perhaps I had left it in there, but I was sure I put out a pair of running shoes out upon arrival, but there was definitively only one running shoe.
Given were out in the sticks I thought it might have been a bird, a big crow or something that may have stopped and picked up my shoe. We've seen plenty about on our travels. I was on the right lines.
As I frantically looked down below a member of the hotel staff was looking up at me, realising my distress, but grinning, and he called up to me. I looked down to see him holding my running shoe, and laughing. "Naughty monkeys!" he yelled.
Yes, there are wild monkeys here, luckily my lone shoe was of no interest, and I was relieved to get it back. So we can add monkeys to the snakes and elephants and lizards we have seen on tour, and also bats. They are hanging upside down on trees just across the river from the hotel; we got shots and made a nice line on the theme of England ‘hanging on’ in the series after their Pallekele victory.
Modern
I have been to the Pallekele stadium before for the Twenty20 World Cup, and returning was a reminder of how lovely this new modern ground is. Set in the hills, it reminds me very much of the new ground in St Lucia, with a similar hilly back drop, and it's smart new, neat facilities, with two grassy banks either side of two big stands. It's clean too, unlike at Hambantota, and this is not in the middle of nowhere. All in all it’s a great place to work and to watch cricket.
One thing in particular really struck me while we were filming practice. The nets at the back of the ground are modern and with steps up to the higher practice surface you can get some really nice low shots of the bowlers, which looks very different. We did that with Steven Finn steaming in, at ankle height.
England won the first of two games here, though it was a new experience for us all to have to return for the reserve day because of heavy evening rain.
But England got the job done, to keep the series alive. It was a dramatic end to the day for my cameraman Ben Wilkins.
There was a power cut locally that took the live coverage off the air so he was hurriedly pressed into action to role on the match using his camera, which on match days is set aside for the live crosses from the ground back to the UK.
With a dedicated line back to London, he was able to film the winning moment, pitch side, as the power problems at the ground were being sorted.
It was a very different look to a live one-day international, but he films games on his own, so it was a good thing he was in the groove from the warm-up matches we did earlier in the tour before the series started.
Moved on
We are able to go live and do reports using a piece of kit which basically has loads of SIM cards and picks up all the local networks for a strong signal, and the result is proper High Definition quality vision. It's a sign of the times how my job has moved on particularly in this part of the world. In years gone by I would have booked satellite space at the local TV station, and sent back all my material, training shots, interviews and voice track for a piece to be put together back in the UK. Now we can send our material straight away and of course provide live reports. It's just like making a phone call.
The signal strength by the river at the team hotel is pretty weak so we moved up the hill slightly, and thanks to Gareth Copley, a veteran of England tours working for the photographic agency, Getty Images, we were able to go live, using the terrace at his hotel right next door to ours.
It was a great vantage point, with a view of the team hotel and at the time, a day off the players, we could see the backroom staff playing tennis, so I stepped out of vision to show the action, just to illustrate how even on a day off.
The competitive spirit is alive within Team England.
Follow Tim’s reports of England’s tour on Sky Sports News HQ and watch the seventh ODI between Sri Lanka and England live on Sky Sports 2 from 8.30am on Tuesday.
