Cherry.

What a day! Can't say too much but my goodness it involved some diplomacy skills and reasoned argument that would put Ban Ki-moon in the shade. I never did expect this job to be simple.

Some burning off of frustration was required and so a trip to the gym resulted - second consecutive day. On the way in I bumped into my best fast bowler from last year (he took 29 wickets), who promptly announced he was going to be playing for someone else this coming season. Arses!

However, after the day I had I was in a combative mood. "You're going to have to take his place, skipper" piped up the internal monologue, "and turn your 19 wickets from last year into 35 this one".

And so it transpired. I replicated last night's 20km on the bike and 1km hard rowing and threw in a couple of circuits on the weights.

By the beginning of May, I'm going to be down to 17st and a hostile, fast-bowling machine...