The Collegiate cricket team with High Commissioner Jan Henderson, centre, and the Barbados support staff.
The Collegiate cricket team with High Commissioner Jan Henderson, centre, and the Barbados support staff.
A cricket tour of the West Indies can be a study in contrasts – tough, uncompromising games on the pitch and beautiful exotic locations off it.
The Wanganui Collegiate Development XI had their final match overnight against The Lodge School in Barbados, but before that the players and coaching staffwere honoured guests at the New Zealand High Commission Embassy on Thursday, NZ time.
The tour group met Jan Henderson, the High Commissioner for Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Eastern Caribbean, along with the Henderson family.
They were hosted at the embassy residence on the prestigious Sugar Hill Estate, around a kilometre inland from Holetown, the initial English settlement on the west of the island.
At the reception, Ben Kelt represented the squad by gifting Henderson a wooden plaque with the school's coat of arms, along with badges for her family and support staff.
Coach Warren Marr told a funny story on the school's Facebook page that at one point the team disappeared, and when he found them they were upstairs in the recreation area.
This included a spa pool overlooking the ocean, lounge suite with music, and a pool table.
"We were all certainly made to feel welcome," Marr said.
