Alec Stewart's Diary

We went through the Pakistan tour unbeaten, and it's good to get off to a winning start in Sri Lanka. It was good opposition - they had a couple of very good spinners, and a couple of Test batsmen - and it was a very good test for us. We came through it well. Each of the batsmen spent at least an hour at the crease, and each of the bowlers had two good spells in both innings. The fielding was the only thing that was slightly below par, but there's room for improvement there. Overall, it's been an excellent start to the tour.

Nasser Hussain was sawn off a couple of times in Pakistan, and didn't have the best of the year 2000. But he's looked very good in the nets here - and obviously he was pleased to spend three to four hours at the crease, to make his highest score for a year or so. We've had no concerns whatever about Nasser's form - he's a top player, and all good players go through little dips, and come out of them. I expect him to score heavily in this series. He's a good player of spin, and a good Test batsman. We've all been there and struggled, with decisions going against us, and Nasser's a good enough player to come through it.

Darren Gough bowled very well - Andrew Caddick bowled well in the second innings without the success that Darren had, but they both bowled well with the new ball, which is very encouraging. The spinners were both a little rusty early on, but again they picked wickets up, and got better and better as their bowling went on. It was a good cricket wicket - it turned with bounce, and helped the spinners - but we know that's going to be the case.

As to the weather since we arrived, we were aware that it was going to be hot and humid out here, and we certainly haven't been disappointed. It's chucked it down a couple of times in the evening, which has probably made the humidity a little bit worse the following day. But practice facilities have generally been good - there have been some net bowlers, but with the A team only just back from a tour to Kenya and the main team away, we were slightly short in the early days of the tour. But otherwise it was good - people were helpful providing young bowlers to come and bowl to us, and all in all it's gone really well.

As to the elbow injury I picked up in Pakistan, I had an injection before coming away. Missing the two-day game gave it a little bit longer to recover - nothing to worry about. Paul Nixon's played in the first game, and I was glad to play in the second one. Altogether, we've got three weeks between our arrival and the First Test Match to make sure that we're ready to take on Sri Lanka. The two-day workout was a good introduction for the lads, and then the four-day game, which finished on Sunday, was better still.