A squad of 30 students from Year 9 – Upper Sixth plus four staff travelled to Dubai and Sri Lanka over the half term break for an unforgettable cricket tour. We had both an Under 15, and a Senior squad and each team had two matches in Dubai and four in Sri Lanka. Away from the cricket, the students enjoyed a desert safari and the incredible shopping malls of Dubai as well as the cities of Colombo and Kandy in Sri Lanka. Also in Sri Lanka, the students travelled north to Sigiriya to visit the Rock Fortress and Elephant Orphanage as well as the Dambulla Rock Temple, Herb and Spice Garden and another safari.
A full report on matches will follow but both sides won two out of six against fierce opposition, and there were some excellent individual performances with three players scoring 50s, one a 100 and one a five-wicket haul.
We were also fortunate to visit a primary school near Sigiriya where the students had sent cricket kit in the summer and pass on bags of cricket equipment to 16 different schools in the community. It was fantastic to see the difference this would make and the students have done other fundraising to support other communities in Sri Lanka.
The students will be able to take a great deal from the cricketing experiences as we look ahead to the 2019 season and enjoyed all of the experiences of two contrasting destinations.
