BBC SPORT | CRICKET | A job well done

Batsman Ian Bell, now in the England Test squad, reflects on his winter with the Academy in Australia.

It's good to report that since my last despatch the niggling injuries that were affecting the balance of our side cleared up.

The squad was soon back to full strength and as a result we returned to our winning ways.

First, we took part in a one-day tournament in Sydney, playing sides from the Australian Academy and New South Wales. We won all of our games relatively easily.

We then returned to Adelaide for our final fitness sessions.

While this was a real shock, it represents a tremenduous opportunity

Bell on being called up into the England squad

From a personal point of view it was very satisfying to have achieved and more importantly maintained a considerably high level of fitness.

What is important now, of course, is to retain the good disciplines learnt and levels of fitness attained.

Perhaps one interesting observation is that the Australian playing schedule includes longer breaks between games, which allows more time for physical training.

Perth was the final stop where we played a Western Australian side in our final four-day game.

We won by lunch on the fourth day so we finished on a real high.

Coach Rod Marsh chats with Alex Tudor

From a playing perspective we had performed well, winning all our games, with the exception of a slight blip against South Australia.

I think the standard of our play was good and hopefully Rod Marsh was pleased with what he saw.

I certainly felt that we had acquitted ourselves well.

Future hopes

The general consensus was that although currently Australia undoubtedly has a team and a half of top class performers, the English structure compares very well.

And that must give us plenty of hopes for the future.

One other point that really stood out to me was the quality of the practice facilities.

Graeme Swann was one of the successes

Perhaps this is something to do with the fact that the State sides have more time available between matches.

As a batsman I was really impressed with the quality of the outdoor practice wickets.

They were better than some of the match wickets played on in England.

With such high quality facilities goes high quality practice.

So the first Academy year has been completed.

I think we have all learnt a lot and sure we are all grateful for the opportunity.

Rodney is off for a short and well earned break before coming over to the UK in April to start selecting his recruits for the class of 2003.

As an interesting post script, within 24 hours of arriving home I have been called up to join the main England squad in New Zealand.

While this was a real shock, it represents a tremenduous opportunity to experience at the very least the preparations for games at the top level.

So it's repacking my bag, picking up my passport and back to the airport.

It's obvious a huge honour for me.

What is important about this is that it is displaying a clear policy for the future.

Namely, that the Academy is seen as the mechanism for supplementing the senior International team.


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