Monday September 26th is departure date from London Heathrow to Mumbai, 10.30am British Airways, and the start of India Super League 3. The Trident Nariman Hotel on Marine Drive will be home for the first couple of days before moving up to Guwahati, right up in the north east of the country, for the opening game of the season on 1st October, North East United v Kerala Blasters. This year the Manager of the Blasters is Steve Coppell, ex Man Utd and an England colleague of mine. For the next few days I will be checking that I have got everything that I will need over the next 3 months. This ranges from the normal stuff like clothes and toiletries to a long list of add on requirements. Spare phone, Handycam for blogging video (!) iPad and keyboard, Chargers, glasses, binoculars (some of the commentary points are a long way from the pitch side), stationary equipment, medical bag containing malaria pills, antibiotics, sterile wet wipes, bathroom clothes line, sunglasses, contact lenses, Imodium (will def be needed sometime), dioralite, anti inflammatory pills, probiotics etc etc. I have double checked the paperwork, visa details, contract, Tax Residency Certificate and all jabs are up to date. £225 worth of malaria tablets as we will be entering the malaria high risk zones on a regular basis over the next 12 weeks. After the the first game in Guwahati on the 1st Oct we will be flying back to Pune on the 2nd Oct for Pune v Mumbai, the closest of any two clubs in the league. Then it is down to Kerala v Kolkata on 5th Oct before heading back to Mumbai on Friday 7th Oct. Four games in the first 7 days in 4 different cities. This is going to be the routine for the next 12 weeks. Criss crossing India every couple of days, north to south and east to west, 14 internal flights in October alone, checking into to a hotel 14 different times visiting each of the eight franchise cities. It is going to be a blast,,#let'sfootball
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AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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