I gave up trying to tell people that the image of swanning around the world playing cricket is all a bed of roses. They never see the problems with flights, the worries of sponsorship, the constant drudgery of the PR, the lack of assistance in getting from A to B by local authorities, and the dangers that we are sometimes exposed to. The Seychelles for me was a bonus, a present in kind for all the work we'd managed to do, and I for one was going to revel in it.

And revel we did. In the short stay there we visited the Islands of Desroches, Denis, Mahe, Praslin, Round, La Digue and the famous and simply gorgeous Bird Island.

The weather was variable, but the people were charming. This old colonial settlement, however, proved to be an island of contradictions. The the Five star hotels on the main island provided only two star service. On the other hand, the Mason Group hotels off the islands provided a level of service that Basil Fawlty could only have dreamt of.

The politics of the island were also relaitively contradictory. A one-party democracy mixed with a freedom to vote as long as no-one ever stands against Monsieur Andre, the president of the country. The last leader of the opposition party, a well known barrister, is fighting for acquittal on corruption charges.

But enough of the anomolies: the beauty of the islands is undeniable. The sea provides a rainbow of blues, the flora and fauna create a magical illusion of paradise, and the geography adds to the cacophony of delights, the like of which I have never seen anywhere else on the planet.

My host for the game (before I get too poetical) was Steve Khambatta, the el presidente of the Seychelles Cricket Association. Steve, a generous, kind and genuine guy, simply has the best of intentions for cricket in these islands, but is battling against a culture ignorant of the finer points of the sport.

We played on the main island of Mahe, at a ground called Freedom Square. Luck would have it that a Royal Naval ship, the first in port for over seven years, had proffered up a team so it was to be against my compatriots that we played a vigorous game on the tiny Seychellois ground. A close affair was eventually won by the home team despite various ratings doing their bit for Queen and country.