Pakistan Dutch update
23 Aug 2004
Pakistan Up date number 2 from Holland (Amsterdam)
**I don’t know how many of you know Amsterdam but it has a fascinating network of canals and waterways which link up to the sea, at the moment too those waterways are being filled up incessantly with rain from some violent thunderstorms. This is making life really tough for the Dutch cricket board organizers of the tri nation’s series! We are playing in a suburb of Amsterdam called Amstelveen about a 10 minute drive from the Hotel. The Hotel is extremely comfortable and the drivers of our bus are all ex pat Pakistanis! They cannot of course get enough of the team and they have been fantastic as well. No problem finding Pakistani food.
At the moment we have three of the team down with a slight stomach bug, Haroon Rashid who we nicknamed Harpoon because if you type his name on the computer the spell check comes up with Harpoon and not Haroon. I t has caught on and Haroon is very easy going about it.
Of course Murray Stevenson (Our trainer) is named Ganja (because he is bald) and I am not going to tell you Darryn Lifson’s (Physio) nick name just yet basically because I cannot spell it in Urdu yet!
While the ground is in Amsterdam we have had to drive out to Utrecht (36 k’s) for practice where we have two middle pitches with nets around them and two artificial pitches and two more grass nets. Every club has soccer fields and artificial Hockey field there are over 400 astro turf hockey field in Holland. They are of course a great Hockey Nation.
I was extremely pleased with our performance against India I felt it was the best of the six performances that we have had. You may not believe this but after the game we returned to the Hotel and six of the players went on a run after the game. There is definitely a new culture beginning to take root in the team, they were not asked to go but did so no prompting, indeed 8 more went to the Gym as well.
The reason for this fitness drive is the amount of cricket we have coming up and because we have a very arduous Australian tour as well in December. We are also building up our plans for the ICC Champions trophy which is just around the corner now. I also thought Inzamam captained beautifully and the team, I believe are heading in the right direction. There is still plenty to do and we are constantly identifying areas where we can improve.
Thank you all for your continued support and keep your fingers crossed every time we play. Remember we are doing it for you as well!
Bob August 23rd 2004**
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