Things that surprise me in Argentina; mad driving, having dinner at 10PM is considered early, buying two of the best steaks and a decent bottle of red wine for under fifteen pounds, how bad my Spanish is, being called tall and having blond hair (I am 5,11 and have brown hair), the occasional outburst from Maradona and how long a TV commentator can hold his breath to shout goooollllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
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| Lautaro Musiani, Martin Siri, Sofia Bruno and Belen Casas |
However, nothing surprised me as much as when I walked in the grounds of St Albans School to take my first national squad training session. The first thing I saw were two immaculate Red Route Master London Buses dating back to 1958. These must be antiques which are there to sell the school to show British connections you may be thinking? No, the story goes that the buses were brought over to Argentina by a collector who had a son at St Albans and were donated to the school to help transport the children to away fixtures. They are still being used today for the same function and I have been told they are running well but there have been a few incidents with low bridges!
There are nine cricket grounds in Buenos Aires and three have turf pitches. The standard of cricket is much better than expected. If you consider that the national side do not get to see cricket on the TV and proper internet feeds have only been available for the last 4-5 years. I am staggered to see how players have developed to the level they have and can only imagine how good they would be if they were brought up in a test playing nation. It is no coincidence that the younger generation of bowlers are all mystery spinners where as the older players are all seamers.
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