Finger causes frustration but Graham Henry revives memories

The end of a very frustrating week. The little finger that I dislocated last week didn't improve enough for me to play this week's championship match against Sussex.

I was confident of playing this match and warmed up accordingly. I was nervous about fielding and knew I would probably have to relinquish my beloved first slip position.

I haven't been catching that well this summer, spilling several that I would normally get. A lot of it is concentration and it's something I've worked very hard on controlling, especially when I'm captain of a side.

Without the leadership pressures my concentration is not as intense, it is something I will be working on as I hate nothing more than dropping a catch.

Anyway, I didn't have to worry about where I was going to field as I didn't make it through the net session. The jarring from ball on bat was enough to tell me I wouldn't be able to function well enough to play the next four days.

Once that decision is made it's a case of sitting down and mapping out the next four days.

The first thing is treatment, the second thing is fitness, then comes skill work (if possible) and finally the category of 'other'.

In this slot I quickly penciled in 'Rugby' NZ v France and The Lions v  Australia. Both turned out to be great games but I especially enjoyed Graham Henry's interview after the match. He was obviously delighted, but was so focused on, 'keeping everybody's feet on the ground', in particular the English media. They will always love a winner and also love a loser as they can then give it both barrels.

Seeing Graham Henry reminded me of an event two years ago during the World Cup when we were playing Australia in Cardiff.

The game had been going for about 10 overs when all of a sudden the crowd on one side of the ground started going mental for no particular reason, cricket wise that is. They then started chanting "Henry, Henry, Henry" and we watched in amazement as Graham walked past the crowd to his seats, which were up by the players' area. He is very good friends with John Graham our manager at the time, so we were privileged to have his company at the end of the game.

But the thing we took away from this day was two points from the win but also an insight into the passion of the Welsh rugby. You can imagine the feeling over here after Saturday's win. The optimism shown towards the Lions is not being shared with the English cricket side who play the first Ashes Test this week. Australia have had great preparations and even named their side three days early, continuing to send strong messages to their opposition.

There will be huge interest in this series and I look forward to sharing some of my observations with my Kiwi team mates in a couple of weeks time. They will be at present trying to keep warm as the heating at the Academy in Lincoln struggles to cope with -5 degree frosts. Nothing like a frosty unit to warm you up boys!!!