Important to take the positives

Sunday 10 February 2008 | U19s England

Stuart Meaker writes article 3 of our England U19 blog from the 2008 world cup tour party

I always think its good to start off these kind of things on a positive note and after our disappointing result in the Tri-Series in Sri-Lanka, the team managed a remarkable turn around and beat the Sri Lankan U19's 2-1 in a three-game series that we played towards the back end of the tour in Sri Lanka.

Although we were due to stay in Sri Lanka until Sunday, with the security issues being experienced in Colombo around Independence Day it was decided that the final game of our three-game series would be played a day earlier and that we would fly to Malaysia a couple of days earlier on the Thursday.

Having stayed in Malaysia now for around four days and with a limit on the amount we have been able to access the practice facilities following our early arrival, the boys have been able to recuperate a bit from the tough and busy schedule we had in Sri Lanka.

We've made full use of the amazing water-park and theme park that is attached to our hotel in Kuala Lumpur, I personally have made my second trip in three days because of how much I enjoyed it the first time!!

Alex Wakely and Greg Wood have even been able to squeeze in a round of golf between them and I'm sure it won’t be the last. Most importantly of all we had a team meal in which we celebrated Billy Godleman’s birthday, in which some rowdy happy birthdays were sung and some interesting team speeches were made.

Tomorrow, however, it’s back down to business. We have our first warm-up game against, funnily enough, Pakistan! We just can’t seem to get enough of them! The great news is that all 15 members of our team will be fit to take part in tomorrow’s game. Steven Finn, who underwent an operation shortly before the tour began is now almost back to his full stride and tomorrow’s game will be used as test of his ability to hold up in a match scenario!

The team are all behind him and its going to be great having him back on the field with us.

With the team back to full strength, I'm confident that we can start producing the results that are hopefully going to win us this World Cup!