Proteas in Sri Lanka, day 4

Unexpected and slightly unsettling news arrived at the Royal Palms Beach Hotel this afternoon. We are being released from quarantine two days ahead of schedule. Not for good behaviour, apparently, but because none of the production team tested positive on arrival or on our day-three test – and we will effectively be remaining in a bubble for the rest of the tour anyway.

Everybody is to be herded onto a bus at 9:00am and transported to our new hotel in Colombo, close to the R.Premadhasa Stadium. The bus, the hotel and the commentary box will be the limit of our range until the end of the series. So the extra couple of days in quarantine now seem superfluous.

It’s a little early after four days to suggest that ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ had set in, but I had ‘readied’ myself for the seven-day challenge. Several people with experience of lengthy periods in quarantine and bio-bubbles, including my friend Eric Simons, told me to set targets, physical, psychological and administrative, but not to berate myself if I didn’t reach them. Now I’ll never now. Besides, the running kit I washed after the 9.1km walk and skip around my room this morning (2h 26 min if you’re curious) will still be wet tomorrow morning. 

“I’m super excited to be back, it feels like years but it’s only been a few months,” said all rounder Dwaine Pretorius in an interview sent to us on email by the Proteas’ brilliant media manager, Sipokazi Sokanyile. Pretorius missed the tours to both the West Indies and Ireland after testing positive for Covid. But he is back now and competing, perhaps, for one of two seam bowling all-rounder places with Andile Phehlukwayo and Wiaan Mulder. The squad had their first practise outing today, in three groups of six. 

Captain Temba Bavuma

“The weather didn’t help so we trained inside,” Pretorius said before confirming that team discussions had included the slowness of the wickets – and outfields  - and the likelihood that spin will play a leading role in the series and that the seamers would need to focus of their changes of pace. “I don’t think there’ll be much swing,” said Pretorius with a nod to the weather forecast. It is rainy season now and, almost without fail, there has been a shower an hour since we arrived.

Pretorius is the sort of mature cricketer who notices things younger players don’t: “Practising in three groups is really tough on the coaches, a two-and-a-half hour day for us becomes a five-and-a-half hour day for them. We all have to eat in  our mini ‘hubs’ but the most challenging and disappointing thing, for me, is not being able to see the country. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Sri Lanka since 2013 when we had a Sri Lankan security officer at the Champions Trophy and he told us: “You must see our country one day, and now, obviously, we are here but we can’t see much,” Pretorius said. 

Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje

“The challenge is to stimulate your brain because you spend so long sitting alone in your room…but you can’t relax too much. I find playing games is the best way to relax without switching off completely, it’s a fine line. I’m also reading a few books and doing some business on my laptop,” Pretorius said. “Leaving my room and closing the door is my trigger to switch on for cricket. I don’t want to be thinking cricket too much in my room, that’s ‘me’ time in there. We can’t have our families with us as much as pre-Covid teams did, and we have to enter bio-bubbles for a few days before we leave on tour, so it’s extra time away from home.”

(Pictures courtesy of SLC)

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