We finally arrived at the Palm Beach Colombo after a marathon two flight journey. In an intricate logistics exercise, 3 groups of players and staff left from Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi respectively and joined up in Chennai to take a flight together to Colombo. All went well, well almost all, as the airlines managed to misplace a bag of team kit in Delhi.

The 14 players on tour are a mix of old KKR hands, hot new prospects and a couple of outsiders who could surprise a few. Obviously, we could not take any players who would go to into the IPL auction, so much as they would have liked, Sourav, Manoj, Dinda  or any of the other senior players could not make it with us. Nor could Jaydev as he and Cheteshwar were in the Indian squad to the Emerging Players tournament in Sri Lanka.

Some of the old hands include Mandeep, Harpreet, Gaurav Jathar  and Akhlakh Ahmad, who were with the squad last year, and Sunny Singh, Debabrata Das  and Sourashish Lahiri, who were around in previous editions of the IPL.

Teenagers Sanju Vishwanath and Vivek Singh  have been in our development squad for the last couple of years – and Sayan Shekhar Mondal has just started making his way into the Bengal team.

Also around are Chetan Sharma, who played for the Delhi Giants in the ICL, and Prawinder Awana, who has had a stellar season for Delhi and North Zone.

Also good to have Arlen Konwar from Assam, whose first class record has been impeccable for the past few years, and Irfaan Ahmad from Pakistan, a 6’11” ( yes that is not a misprint, he is almost 7 feet tall) fast bowler from Pakistan, specially recommended by Wasim.

The coaching staff comprises Dav, Vijay and Joydeep, and Owen Mottau, a technical batting coach who has worked with the likes of Dravid, Sangakarra and Jayawardende.

Tomorrow is our first practice at the Nondescripts Club, right next to the SSC, where the Indian team is playing. And then we play our first match against the Nondescripts team reckoned as one of the strongest sides in Sri Lanka. This club has produced players like Sangakarra, Tharanga, Malinga and Dinsh Chandimal, and is considered one of the main pipelines of talent for the national team