Dan Housego Blog
5 December 2013
This winter will consist of a fair amount of travelling. From a 10 day stint in Bangladesh in October, to Melbourne a few weeks ago, and then heading to Zimbabwe in the New Year, the opportunity to spend my winter playing on 3 different continents has so far been an exciting and refreshing experience. I decided that I wanted to push myself and find a way of scoring runs in different climates, whether that be the turning wickets in the Dhaka Premier League, the fast wickets in Victoria, or the flat wickets in Zimbabwe. I truly believe that in order for me to achieve my personal targets within this game; I must step outside of my comfort zone and grasp these sorts of opportunities with both hands.
Bangladesh was a startling experience; not just from a cricketing perspective, but on a cultural level too. The kindness and generosity of the Bengali people is something that I will certainly never forget. However, the seemingly endless 4 hour journeys to each of the games weren't exactly ideal! The wickets were slow with little sideways movement from the seamers. However, spinners were very difficult to hit, as the wickets turned a lot.
Reflecting on my performances, I tried to hit the ball too square. It is vital on slow turning wickets to try and hit the ball as straight as possible. This is something I will bring back to the UK and keep in mind when the wickets dry out in July – September. I played 3 games over 9 days, in which 3 of those days were spent in my hotel room due to riots in the city. Something, I certainly wasn’t prepared to risk going outside. 53 in the first game, followed by scores of 23 and 15, were learning experiences in hugely different conditions.
I am currently in my second week of 5 in Melbourne and am pleased with a few solid personal performances which have complemented 3 straight victories for the club I am playing for. Mulgrave is a great club, with a terrific team ethos and spirit which I am particularly enjoying being part of. Scores of 70, 53 and 50 in three games are a pleasing start. I feel my specific training is being taken into game situations. I have identified key areas of my game that I need to work on and will solely focus on these parts in the coming weeks. I am hugely excited at the improvements I have made to my game so far this winter, and I want to continue learning and developing as much as I can over the following months to be best prepared for the start of the 2014 English cricket season in April.
In the New Year I head to Harare in Zimbabwe for 3 months, which I am sure will be equally as exciting and challenging as Bangladesh and Melbourne! I’ll be playing for the Mountaineers, with Mark Pettini from Essex. Looking forward to spending Christmas with my family before I jet off again, in order to gain valuable experience in a different climate altogether. I will keep you up to date with my progress and look forward to seeing you all in early April next year.
