The last month has been frantic to say the least, rushing around like a headless chicken trying to make sure there is nothing left outstanding before I depart. In trying to please everyone the last person you look after is yourself, so it is nice to get away and be able to concentrate on my cricket. To those I have failed to contact I can only apologise.
Once again, saying goodbye to the children was hard. It does not get any easier, especially as they begin to realise how long you will be away. Touring is a magnificent opportunity and something I thoroughly enjoy. As I have said before, the good points far outweigh the bad but each winter I feel more guilty about leaving them.
This year seems to have been, cricket-wise, the busiest I can remember. At the end of it all I will have slept in 50 different beds, with my longest continuous spell in one being 19 nights in Trinidad last February. And, in total, I will have spent only 115 nights at home. Yes, surprisingly, I am still married. It is only when I am at home that the arguments start. I would love to find out who upsets Denise while I am away!
Several hours of the journey to Perth were spent in transit in Dubai and Singapore which meant the duty free shops did well out of us. The boys bought plenty of gadgets which in a week's time will no doubt seem to have been a good idea at the time. A couple of hours were killed in the Raffles lounge at Singapore airport chatting to the South African cricketers who were on their way to Bangladesh to play against our other team in the Wills International Challenge.
The most animated our party became on the journey over was when an edition of the cricket video Cover Point came on the television and immediately showed highlights of last summer's Old Trafford Test, notably my 'heroics' with the bat in keeping Allan Donald out and helping secure the draw. Each delivery from Donald to me was greeted with laughter and howls of derision from my friends about my batting technique. Thanks lads!
Our arrival at 1am was pretty low key even though quarantine was very obliging. They cleaned our boots as we came through customs to stop us bringing any unwanted fungi into the country. Rummaging through our bags is just what you need after 28 hours travelling. Darren Gough asked them whether they could iron his shirts while they were at it but they did not see the funny side of that.
Everywhere we tour these days there seems to be an England player returning to a country with which he has strong links. On the last tour it was Dean Headley returning to Jamaica. This time it is Alan Mullally's turn to return to his home town. Alan appears to be going to play quite a big part in this winter's cricket with there being plenty of talk of us playing five bowlers.
So far he has not been given any real stick from the locals but even if that does come his way I feel that he is strong enough to brush it off with a smile. He has had to wait quite a while for another opportunity, his last Test match being played against New Zealand in January 1997. Since then he has worked hard at his game, shortened his run-up and now appears to be a better and more consistent bowler than he was two years ago.
By playing and bowling well for us this winter he will offer us greater variety with his left-arm seam and the foot-holes he creates on his follow through should bring our off-spinners into the game. As a character he is someone I feel I will spend quite a bit of time with this winter. He is easy-going, likes the group U2 and should be able to find the beaches he failed to locate when someone asked him where he was going one day in Zimbabwe.
The Australian media are up and running and have already given us no chance of winning this winter. Mike Atherton has been their first target, Dennis Lillee suggesting he is having nightmares about Glenn McGrath following his article about him in these pages last week. Perhaps they chose to forget the contest he overcame successfully this summer against Allan Donald but there again they are the most one-eyed, sorry, patriotic press you will ever come across. It is now up to us in the coming months to make them eat their words.
The attitude of everyone in the party has been to get straight to work. We trained on Friday afternoon, had nets yesterday morning and fielding practice in the afternoon. With Graham Gooch and Alec Stewart in charge until David Lloyd gets here from the one-day tournament in Bangladesh, there is one thing they will not be able to describe us as and that is lazy.
The facilities over here have so far been excellent, as is to be expected. The weather is sunny and comfortable and the nets at the WACA are as good if not better than any I encountered in England last summer.
At the moment then it is so far, so good. Let's hope it continues.