Ireland head for Bangkok and first WWT20Q game

In just seven days Ireland will be playing their first game in the WWT20Q against the Netherlands. Captain Isobel Joyce and her team have completed all their preparations and are bound for Thailand. In her second blog for WCB Izzy confirms Bangkok will be no holiday...

The weeks leading up to the departure date seemed to fly in, but then the last few days have positively dragged. I think that may be because there is so much to get in order before we go. The usual focus has probably been lacking for those of us who work while our minds are otherwise engaged thinking of packing things like suncream and cricket bats. And while we all have a good excuse for our wandering minds many of my friends and co-workers seem to think we are heading off on our holibops as opposed to travelling to Thailand with a job to do.

My sister Cecelia is a solicitor in Arthur Cox, Ireland's biggest law firm, and she keeps on being told to have fun on her holidays! Although she won't be running to court in her suit, she still sees herself as going away to do some very important work - representing the Ireland Women's Cricket team.

We have plenty of students on the team and while some won't be missing much, we will no doubt have a study crew comprising Gaby Lewis, Kim Garth and Laura Delany who all have exams and assignments due dates to look forward to.

I coach hockey along with my teammate Clare Shillington and yesterday when we were saying goodbye to our charges for a couple of weeks, they were refreshingly interested in the sports element and the fact that it would be difficult to play somewhere so hot.

With hurricane Barney and seemingly never-ending rain, we are ready to see some sunshine. Our acclimatisation training since our trip to La Manga a few weeks ago has basically consisted of wearing lots of layers to gym, training, and conditioning sessions. Our wicketkeeper Mary Waldron wanted to wear her helmet to spin class but we agreed that was one step too far.

I'm looking forward to having a week out there to prep before the tournament gets started. It's so important when you're going into a tournament that you understand how the pitches play, the best way to go about fielding on the outfield, how quick that outfield is and plenty more besides.

Personally, I'm looking forward to bowling a lot of overs before the competitive matches begin. Since June, due to injury, the only matches I have played are the three T20s against World Champions Australia so I have bowled a limited number of overs in that time.

When you get a little.... older and add an injury, everything becomes about workload and injury management. So six days devoted to training and acclimatising means that I can put in a good shift and I don't have to worry about being on my feet coaching all day and aggravating my knee from overuse.

I'm also looking forward to experiencing Thailand from a different perspective than I have before. Having visited as a backpacker in 2006, staying in no doubt less salubrious accommodations than the hotel we are staying in this time around, it will be interesting to see how things might differ.

After all of this waiting it's finally time to board the plane; no doubt when we get there we will once again be impatient, this time waiting for the tournament to begin.  

Isobel Joyce
21/XI/15