By Ceci, a student on the tour.
In August, I had the pleasure of participating in the first-ever SHSK overseas cricket tour to Sri Lanka. It was a privilege to be part of the Helkats squad and to experience some fantastic cricket matches, hard-fought wins and losses against very talented teams whilst pushing our limits in the incredibly humid heat and learning more about ourselves and each other.
We arrived in Sri Lanka to be welcomed by our tour guide and tour bus, which took us on a rollercoaster ride – quite literally – to our first hotel as we soon found out that the rules on the roads appear to be pretty much non-existent, which took a bit of getting used to.
Match days – at some great venues
On match days, one of the most challenging things at first, despite the obvious heat, was getting to know each other and becoming a proper team since we had a mixture of years 9, 10 and 11. We learned about our skills and strengths on the field and everyone faced the formidable spin bowling, which we don’t often face in England! By the end of the tour, we felt united as a squad rather than a group of mixed ages and abilities and, ultimately, performed better as a team as we challenged some of the harder teams we would play on tour.
Rest days – Sigiriya Lion Rock Fortress, Elephant Orphanage, Turtle sanctuary
On rest days, we visited some amazing places including the Sigiriya Lion Rock Fortress which involved a climb of 1,200 steps to an incredible view, even though we got up early to make the climb in the cooler part of the day, by the time we were half-way up, the humidity and heat of Sri Lanka hit you, but it was worth it. We visited beautiful temples, experienced colourful and dramatic cultural dance with fire, learned about how tea is produced and saw some preparations for the Kandy elephant festival.
The elephant orphanage was definitely a highlight for many of us. We learned about the care elephants need and were able to feed and help wash some of the elephants – possibly also inspiring a few of us, me included, to purchase a few elephant ornaments to take back home. Alongside this, we visited the turtle conservation programme where we were able to hold baby turtles and some adult ones too!
Sri Lankan cuisine often turned out to be a lot spicier than what we are used to but nevertheless, we were all still determined to try new delicacies – even though sometimes we felt like our mouths were on fire.
The tour was a wonderful experience.
It gave us the opportunity to forge friendships across year groups, meet new people, experience a different culture, refine cricket skills, gain valuable match play experience as well as identify skills to improve and practice on returning home.
