Lost luggage, flight delays and gusty winds upon landing summed up the Australian cricket team’s rather tumultuous arrival at the T20 World Cup, but all-rounder Ashton Agar said a cruise along the city’s stunning coastline was all it needed to calm the players. Australia will open their campaign against Oman on June 5 (June 6 at 6 am IST). Pace leader Pat Cummins and fellow fast bowler Mitchell Starc returned to Australia after the IPL for a short break and while heading to the West Indies, the former lost his luggage which eventually found its way to him, according to a report at ‘cricket.com .au’. “Flight delays also affected Starc and Maxwell, as the pair had to spend a night in Los Angeles and then another night in Miami en route to Barbados following their brief trips back to Australia after the IPL,” the website reported.
Marcus Stoinis also had to miss a training match after his kit was delivered late.
However, Agar said that the cruise on Saturday managed to bring a sense of calm to the team, which had to put support staff on the field during practice games due to the lack of starting players at that time.
“A lot of the boys are spending a lot of time in India in the IPL, maybe 48 hours at home for some of them, so to do something like this is very refreshing,” Agar told reporters.
“I think mentally, once you’ve done that, you go into the sessions ready to go because you’ve already taken advantage of what the Caribbean has to offer.
“We were sitting on the roof of the catamaran when we were coming back last night and ‘Stoin’ (Stoinis) actually mentioned that ‘I don’t know if many other teams would be like that’,” he added.
Agar said one of the memorable moments was watching the sunset.
“You’ve got all the kids sitting on the roof watching the sun go down, having a drink together, genuinely having fun and enjoying each other’s company.
“It was very easy to forget that you are here for a World Cup,” he joked.
Agar showed up for an optional training session.
“Before a tournament where you’re not going to train a lot when the matches are intense and fast, you want to do all your training,” Agar said.
“You want to make sure you’re ready to go, that your mechanics are working well, hitting that four to six meter length, getting my shoulder on track,” he said.
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This story originally appeared on ndtv.com read the full story
