Mady Villiers Column: Quarantine, helicopters, stunning views and returning to ODI cricket

Ahead of the opening match of England's tour of New Zealand, the off-spinner tells The Cricketer about life in the camp

This is my first time in New Zealand, but everything in Queenstown is just so picturesque. It was stunning. We had quite a lot of pretty special experiences during our time away from cricket. Honestly, on one day off we went on a helicopter and I don’t know if I’ve had any better days. I was saying to the girls, I can’t imagine the day I have kids is going to beat how special those views were!

Even at training, you’d be there in the nets trying to watch the ball and it’s coming out of this backdrop that is so perfect it looks like a piece of art. It was pretty weird going from lockdown to being in one of the most beautiful places in the world, like proper going from 0-100.

We’ve now moved onto Christchurch ahead of the first ODI on Tuesday, back to where we did our quarantine when we first arrived. So, it will be nice to actually get to see some of it this time around.

We were lucky that we could train during that period in six-person bubbles. It helped us to keep on top of things and not get too far behind. Once we went back to being in a full group when we came out of quarantine, there were a lot more people there and it was quite strange at first.

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We hadn’t played for so long, so everyone was getting back into the swing of things. The two warmup games really helped, especially the batters. Being in an actual game was really important; you can do all the fielding drills you want, but you can’t really get the intensity unless you’re in a game.

Mainly in the second game (a 30-run defeat against a New Zealand Development XI), you could tell that we hadn’t played in a long time, that we were a bit rusty, and you could tell that the New Zealand girls had been able to train a lot more and play. There were bits where you wouldn’t have been able to tell that we hadn’t played, but there were also some patches that were not the best.

That being said, I don’t think you can really expect much in your first two games back after such difficult preparation. But warm-up games are there to warm you up, it’s much better than winning easily and not learning anything.

Ultimately, especially in the Covid world, you just have to take any game that comes and be pretty grateful for it. There are people who aren’t able to play at all at the moment, so any cricket that we get, we want to play at match intensity and play to win. Hopefully, we’ve got any cobwebs out of the way with those warmup games and we can go into the series really strongly and hopefully start well.

It is a challenge, though, coming into a 50-over team that are still world champions. It’s a tough nut to crack! It’s not going to be easy to get into the squad because we’ve proven how good a side we are. This team are world champions for a reason – and the depth in the team is just ridiculous.

I’ve not played much 50-over cricket so far – and I haven’t made my ODI debut yet, though we had the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy last summer and I loved playing for Sunrisers. So, for me, these games are just about learning.

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It’s so different to T20, so I’m just enjoying being around the group and trying to take what I can. If I don’t play any ODIs or if I play them all, I’ll leave the tour a much better ODI player and take that into the regional competitions.

I think as a group we’re trying to get back into those habits, of doing everything for longer and being more consistent.

It’s been nice to have some new faces involved too. Issy Wong has fitted into the team so well; she makes everyone laugh and you would not be able to tell that she’s just been in the side for a few weeks. She’s so funny and has so much energy. She’s great to be around. More than anyone else, Sophie Ecclestone has really looked after her and taken her under her wing, but she’s a very self-sufficient girl and she knows what she wants to do. She’s settled in very well.

And then there’s Tash. I love Tash Farrant’s story. I think it’s great.  It’s so rare that you hear of somebody that gets dropped from the squad and then comes back in. I think it’s brilliant, so credit to her. She’s done so well and has worked so hard on her game. She’s buzzing to be here and she’s an energetic one as well! On a long tour, people like Tash and Wongi come in handy because they’re the kind of people who can pick you up when you’re a bit flat.

I can’t lie, being out here is strange because life is so normal. It is quite interesting how quickly we have got used to it again. I thought it would take a few weeks for us to be comfortable being able to hug. But I was really surprised; it was only a day or so.

But it is a bittersweet pill because we know when we get home, we’re going to have to go back to social distancing and having to wear masks, so we’re literally just trying to make the most of everything at the moment. I’ve thought about that a little, but I’m trying to keep it on the backburner at the moment. You always feel like you’re on edge at home, don’t you? There are so many things that you can’t do. And then, out here, we just have the freedom that we can go to a coffee shop and you’re not having to worry.

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That said, quarantine was challenging. We were very lucky because we had an outdoor courtyard to ourselves where we were allowed to walk around, obviously with social distancing, but it was still nice to have a chat to people.

There are hotels here where you can see people’s outdoor yard time, and it’s literally just a circular route. It looks very antisocial, so we were very fortunate to have a patch of grass where we could talk to each other. That got us through, to be honest.

We had a bike in our rooms, so we’ve done a few bike sessions and Sophie did a couple of HIIT sessions as well for the girls over Zoom. I feel sorry for the people in the rooms below us because there was a lot of jumping going on!

The food was really good – that was one thing I was worried about. You could get whatever you wanted – there was so much choice. If we wanted a takeaway one night, we could get Deliveroo and stuff like that, so everyone was very well looked after.

I took a golf club as well – only one because we didn’t have much baggage. I made little golf balls out of tape and a sock, and I was just hitting them into the wall. That passed a few hours.

Generally, I’m not big on sitting down to watch series but Henry, our media person, was telling me about It’s a Sin on Channel 4. I watched that all in one day and I cried in the final episode. I highly recommend it.

I’ve never had an Xbox or PlayStation before, but me and Sophie brought one because we wanted to play Fifa and Call of Duty against each other. I think we only played against each other once – that was a bit of a five-minute hype to pass the time.