After all the waiting it's time to start

Tuesday 28th November

It's raining rather heavily and it looks as though it has set in for the afternoon. This is a bit of shame really as the opening ceremony is planned for 5pm this afternoon and a lot of planning has gone into staging the event. Maybe with a bit of luck it will clear by then.

We trained indoors today at the High Performance Centre and then ventured out to Burnham for the last part of the session to have a light fielding run.

We arrived back at Lincoln at 12 noon and by this time several of the other teams had arrived which added to the atmosphere. Up until now it has been relatively quiet at the University with most of the students gone.

Late in the afternoon we got changed into our Number Ones for the first time in a while and headed off to the opening ceremony - unfortunately there has been no improvement in the weather.

The opening ceremony was fantastic as the teams marched out behind their flags to a traditional Maori ceremonial welcome - a Powhiri. This was followed by a challenge laid down by the Maori warriors and a Karanga, which is a call of welcome. What an amazing and stirring performance this Maori cultural group gave us. After the official speeches, and some choir singing from Cathedral Grammar school in Christchurch, the teams and special guests gathered in a marquee for some light refreshments.

Finally after four years and many days of counting down on the CricInfo website..........we are almost underway!