Iain O'Brien's Cricket Blog

Welcome to you, where ever you are.

I’m currently in one of the lounges at Sydney Airport waiting to board our fight to Perth.  Yesterday we played a match against the Prime Ministers XI, and well, to put it mildly, we didn’t do too well in the field.

It’s Friday night, I’m sitting on my bed in my new place, that I only moved into last Thursday, watching SA bowl to the Ausies on the telly, and I couldn’t be happier.

And like that Wellington Firebirds are out of the State Shield, the domestic One Day completion, and there is still one match to go.  We’re rock bottom, we’ve won three from nine and in those six losses five of them have been, for lack of a better word, hidings.  We have really lost badly in more games than we should have.  Yes we are hit hard when the Black Caps are playing but in saying that, in the last two matches, one close loss and one beating, we’ve been

Arrr, that’s better.  Back on track with a very good win against a very good team.  The papers call it an upset although I just happy with it being a game where a couple of us (Wellington Firebirds) played better than they did.  We are a good team; we’ve just been playing some average cricket.

As it stands I won't be a part of the One Day series against the West Indies. I got the phone call a couple of nights ago and was told that they were staying with the same bowling unit. How can I argue, they're going great, doing their jobs and staying fit; everything they should be doing! And on the other side of it I'm doing everything I can to show that I'm up to International One day cricket. I'm bowling in the positions that the selectors have asked me to I'm hitting the areas, pretty much, that I should be but I probably haven't got the wickets that they'd want of me.

Days like yesterday hurt.  It doesn’t matter that I had a reasonable game as it’s the end result that really matters.

It’s New Years day and I’m on the couch resting up for tomorrows One Day match against Otago.

A quiet night last night, went out and had a couple of beers with some of the Wellington boys, home by 12.30 very sober and very much looking forward to sleep.  I’m not one for the late nights to often, especially when I know I have to get up and train the next day.  I just can’t operate tired, let alone, with a hangover, at all!

A beautiful day in Nelson, Trafalgar Park looking great, it was just a pity that there really was only one team in it; and it wasn't us.