Team India Goes Sky Walking, for Whale Safari

At the unveiling of Team India’s New Jersey, team captain M S Dhoni had said that none of the players would be going bungee jumping, which is one of the attractions of beautiful New Zealand. From canyoning and bungee jumping to ‘zorbing’ (basically getting inside and rolling around in a giant ball) to the more traditional activities of skiing and tramping, caving, climbing, New Zealand offers the outdoors person a host of choices. Bungee jumping may have been forbidden to India’s international cricket team because of their contract with the BCCI that bars such activity, but there were many other options for the players which they indulged in according to the cricket news.

While the players did not sky dive, which is among New Zealand’s chief attractions, they did do some ‘sky walking’. So you had Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Karthik, Lakshmipathy Balaji and Praveen Kumar trying their hand at a 90-minute sky walk at the City Sky tower, which is the tallest man made structure in the southern hemisphere.  

Dhoni on the other hand, who has a self confessed fear of heights probably passed on the chance to be high up in the air suspended by cables in favour of going deep sea fishing with Rahul Dravid and physical and mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, reportedly to try their hand at catching a 40 pound fish.

Accordingly to reporting in the cricket news, Coach Gary Kirsten, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Gautam Gambhir and Munaf Patel on the other hand set out on a dolphin and whale safari.

While many may have the apprehension that adventure sports such as these may not be the best idea in the middle of a cricket series, Coach Kirsten had a different view. “We got a 48-day tour. It is pretty much cricket all-in and all-out. You have one or two days between the games. We certainly encourage less practice time when you are on the road because you are in game time already,” he said. 

He indicated that it was important for players not to feel jaded as he said, "Mental freshness is more important. We create a lot of optional sessions so those who feel like coming down are available to do some work. At least when it comes to match time, we know the guys are in a happy space and they are comfortable with how they have gone about their business in the two days before. And they are ready to go and play another game of cricket for their country."