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The white sands of Maracas beach - Nicky Boje
Nicky Boje - 26 March 2001

Trinidad, our second stop on our Caribbean tour has been pretty cool and finally we got to go to a beach on one of our off day last week. Maracas really is a beautiful white sandy beach with a deep blue sea and waves big enough to body surf.

I hear that when the SA team was here in '92, some of the guys also went body surfing there and Richard Snell crashed into Meyrick Pringle injuring his chest. Pring was forced to miss a one-dayer.

The Trini nightlife is a bit quiet and most of the guys are hanging out around the hotel. There's a pretty good TGI Fridays restaurant that some of us have sampled over the last few days and next on "menu" is the Indian Restaurant just down the road from the hotel.

The test match atmosphere at the Queens Park oval has been magic. The crowds were good over the weekend and if you watched on TV you would have noticed how vibrant and noisy they are, especially the Trini Posse stand.

I have found it quite difficult to adapt to the wickets. The tracks are quite slow and unresponsive and thus I have not had the results that I was hoping for. That is up until now. However, there is still a lot of hard work that lies ahead and hopefully things will turn our way.

It was a thrilling moment to be part of the test match that saw Courtney Walsh's 500th test wicket. He really has had a fantastically long career and has proved all along what a competitor he is.

It's just a pity for Jacques that he was given out LBW on this huge occasion with a ball that the TV replays showed he got an edge to.

I feel for Jacques because this is the second test match in a row where he has had a rough break. However, I'm sure he'll hit his straps soon and his luck with turn and a big hundred will come his way.

From a team point of view, we are playing quite well but we feel that the breaks just have not gone our way. By this I mean that any 50-50 decisions have either gone against us or for the opposition and it does get you down a little.

However, we know that as a team we must soldier on, continue to work hard and that the wheel is round and decisions will soon start to go our way. That's cricket and you can't do anything about it.

In situations like these, the team needs a spark to lift the guys. Herschelle's fielding during the first two tests so far has been tremendous on such hard and bumpy outfields and he keeps inspiring the guys to give 110%.

We're all looking forward to Barbados, the next venue where the wives will be joining us. We'll also be meeting up with Franklyn Stevenson who played 5 years for Free State. Frankie has promised us a few rounds of golf on the island.

Until another time this is Nicky Boje signing off for CricInfo.

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Teams South Africa.
First Class Teams Free State.
Players/Umpires Nicky Boje.
Tours South Africa in West Indies


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Date-stamped : 30 Apr2001 - 09:40