I have to confess to being blown away by the progress India has made in the 5 or so years since I was last here. The country has come along at a rate that is hardly believable and to be honest is not too much different to being anywhere else in the world. The hotels are genuinely 5 star and the usual everyday things we take for granted are all now available- internet speeds are good, mobiles are something which have been embraced and the networks are excellent and cheap. None of the dropping out issues that are common place in NZ. Satelite TV is everywhere and the housing boom is in full swing- in fact the developments that are advertised litterally everywhere are very similar architectually to those that sprung up all over NZ during our own housing boom. Business wise its all about cricket- all of the major corporates have aligned themselves with either the game or its players and the games hold on the mases in undisputed. The IPL franchises are beginning to hold press conferences to unveil their logos and these are featured live on at least 5 or 6 networks as breaking news! Honestly I've never seen anything like it. The ICL is now well underway and my experience to date is that it is well resourced and organised and the future it aspires to is quite visionary. I expect that within 6 months each of the franchise teams will have secured home stadiums (this tournament is played at 3 venues) and that new teams will have joined. The Lahore side will be based in Pakistan and a team from the West Indies is widely talked about at present. Future tournaments will also likely be played in venues such as the US and Dubai giving it a truely global focus. Broadcast rights are owned by Zee and at present are showing all over Asia, Africa and the Americas on both subscription based and free to air channels. There is plenty of advertsiing support in evidence and the standard of games is high due in large part to the quality of the internationals on display. Bondy debuted last night with a spell of fast bowling that looked to be 145kmph + and his attitude is typical of those of us who have come to play- we want to win and do well personally both on and off the field and a big part of that is getting the most out of the local players who make up the bulk of our sides. Personally I have been surprised at how much I have to offer- its easy to forget the sheer quantum of experience and routines built up over 15 years which you take for granted but which can make a huge difference to other players games. Its a shame that in recent years most of that experience has been lost to New Zealand Cricket as my generation has quietly faded away from the game in NZ and been lost. To watch Cairns, Astle, Bond and others at work over the past few days marshalling their sides and performing at the same level as they always have suggests that if NZC can get a program together to keep its experienced players involved in and around the BlackCaps unit in the years to come there will be significant upside for the game in NZ.   

The Twenty/20 format of the tournament is something we are all getting to grips with- as yet there is no clear pattern of how best to play it although a number of themes are becoming obvious. The 7pm start makes for a long day and at this stage most of the sides appear reasonably well matched. My Chennai franchise has the best group of local players that I have seen and our strategy is built around developing these guys over the next few years.

Business wise my daily routine hasn't changed too much although I have skipped out of having to drop the kids off at school. My mornings are spent on emails with franchisees and on the phone as per usual. Because of the demands of a young family I specifically designed our systems and processes to be remote so that I could continue to run the businesses from home if my family commitments demanded it. As a result the fact that I am in India for a month is simply business as usual and the transition has been seemless. Most people don't even know that I am not in our Greenlane Head Office. The only noticable difference is that my internet speeds have increased significantly and my mobile calls are cheaper- go figure. It costs me about 20c a minute to call a NZ mobile from here. I'm starting to see why Telecom needed to be regulated.

An unexpected bonus has been getting to spend alot of time with Michael Bevan our Australian Master Franchisee. Bevo is very good strategically and between us we have identified a number of new initiatives and opportunites that will benefit both our NZ and Australian businesses.