CARIBBEAN TOURS ARE HARD WORK – MACGILL

 SUNDAY 1 JUNE – ST JOHN'S, ANTIGUA – A tour of the Caribbean, one of the world's premier tourist destinations, is every Test cricketer's dream. While this may especially be true during off days when postcard beaches are always a few short steps away, today Stuart MacGill the leg spinner who announced his retirement from international cricket, painfully detailed how difficult it is to operate as a bowler in unfriendly and punishing Caribbean cricketing conditions.

 "Caribbean tours are hard work, very few of us (Australian players) cope well with tours over here, these tours are very hard tours," frankly declared the 37 year old leg spinner who is on his third tour of the region.
 "Playing against the West Indies in the Caribbean is hard work, you've got some very good players who respond very very well to playing in this region," MacGill told journalists at the end of day three of the Second Digicel Test when he bowled 16 unquestionably wretched overs and was clobbered for 82 runs and picked up one wicket.
 "It's hot, the pitches are unforgiving, the grounds are quite often small although this one (Sir Vivian Richards Stadium) is a great facility and you've really got to earn your dollars," said MacGill who has struggled to make an impact on the tour thus far, picking up five wickets (inclusive of two tailenders whose dismissals were forced by umpiring errors) from 52 overs.

 MacGill who was expected to shoulder the brunt of the spin bowling load in the post-Shane Warne era has been extremely erratic in both line and length and also in general direction as batsman after batsman punished him for being embarrassingly loose. He hinted that apart from struggling to recover proper from wrist surgery there were mental issues which were also causing him difficulties.

 "A lot of people watching from the other side of the fence only see the physical side of cricket, they don't see the mental impact (which) is pretty significant, you've really got to concentrate over here (in the Caribbean) otherwise things get away from you real quick," said MacGill.
 MacGill, who indicated that he will continue playing First Class cricket for New South Wales, said that the tight schedule also took its toll on him, causing him to oversleep and miss the team bus' departure to the match venue on the second morning.

 "We've had a pretty tight schedule, three days between Tests here plus the (warm up) game at Trelawny, I think the rigours of this particular tour have proven a little bit too big for me and historically it has been the case for a couple of bowlers so at least I am in good company," said MacGill in a clear reference to the legendary Warne who had an ordinary time in seven Caribbean Test matches when he only took 17 wickets and never had a five wicket haul in this part of the world.