09 March 2026
05:59
Testing the Heathrow Airport security procedures due to a misplaced bumbag containing my passport possibly wasn’t the hassle free start to the trip that I was hoping for but this is a CWB trip….
After an all night, little sleep flight, we met Erlei, who was to be our friendly Cricket Brazil driver. We drove through Sao Paulo with its many high rises, and then into the green countryside, banana plants a pop of colour from the local trees, a toucan on a wire.
The skies opened, the wind screen wipers were in a frenzy, the thunder and lightening a mere 3 seconds apart. Erlie did a grand job and a well deserved stop, and a service station, the victim of our first attempts at deciphering and nodding in Portuguese. Obrigada…..thankyou a good start!
Within four hours we made it to Poças de Caldas, the town sprawled out with high rise, wide roads people walking and jogging and markets buzzing on a Saturday with locals selling anything and everything. Met on arrival by Matt Fetherstone, this is a man so obviously from London, despite having lived here 26 years! An engaging and friendly man who set up and is now CEO of Cricket Brazil, he vision and enthusiasm that seems to know no boundaries. Apt that we are here?
Inside ‘Casa Cricqueta’ our home for the next two weeks, we met Nicky and Ana two of the national team, Again so friendly and inviting, our house mates. Poças is a safe town, built as blocks with one way streets, sitting in the heart of a dormant volcano surrounding by beautiful landscape, some coffee fields in the distance, sulphur springs, spas, cheese and apparently many cows, which supply the milk for also the French yogurt and Ferrero Rocher chocolat. Looking across the urban development is the Cristo Redentor, a miniature (but still large) Christ the Redeemer, high on the hill at one end,
Our first 36 hours included meeting the MCCF (Marylebone Cricket Club Foundation), who have invested in the CWB vision of developing change through cricket, also now including Cricket Brasil. On this project I I hope to see the connectivity of three different partners come together, to embrace the challenge of success, to create opportunities for girls and boys, to develop young coaches and leaders.
Some will use cricket in return for an education at university, with it the opportunity to grow and support a national team and to be a part of an ambitious and amazing project and I’m excited to see how we can impart our 6 C’s within this. Care, competence, confidence, creativity, connectivity, & character (of doing the right thing).
Sian
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