Jonty gets on board

The opening days of the IPL have been a high level of activity on and off the field. My initial taste of IPL 2.0 saw us practicing every day, with meetings, kit-outs, video analysis, and team discussions.

I am surprised that in between all this I managed to pull off two sessions of surfing in Cape Town during the four days of the opening game and ceremony. This was a feat by itself and it worked as a great stress-buster.

Many of my fans may not know this, but I actually dislike physical training, so I generally exercise while I am having fun! I do this by surfing, playing tennis and riding my mountain bike in the sugar cane fields and biking tracks that have been designed to keep you fit and scare you slightly! Back home in sunny Durban, I like to surf at least four times a week, for about 90 minutes, which is great exercise for your arms and shoulders, and also ride twice a week for two hours, which works the legs and improves my cardio fitness.

Being a late starter in the surfing world, I am getting great exercise, as I generally spend more time swimming/paddling than most of the surfers who have been riding waves from a young age! Cape Town, one of the most visited tourist places in the world, offers some of the best surfing waves in the world. Sunset Beach Reef is one of the few big wave sites. To those who love to ride the waves, surfers and bodyboarders, Western Cape Peninsula has a very rich bounty to offer and something you must definitely indulge in when visiting South Africa, even if you are a beginner. As a Durbanite, I am blessed with being able to surf in the warm Indian Ocean as my home surfing spot, so the rather cold Atlantic Ocean came as a shock to my system, even with a full wetsuit on!

I also had to get to Paarl in the Cape Winelands for the opening of my wine bar. Though I could make it on schedule, I could just about down one glass of wine (just as well, as this kept me under the legal driving limit) before I rushed back to our hotel.

In the midst of all this action and fun, I also got to partake of au00a0 humbling experience the launch of IPL's HEAT initiative, (Help, Educate And Teach) which will donate around R9,000,000 (US$ 10,00,000) to help disadvantaged children in South Africa obtain a higher level of education. The reaction of the learners when the IPL entourage of Bollywood stars, administrators and captains of most of the IPL franchisees committed to this was very emotional. I am grateful for the positive impact that IPL 2.0 is going to have on this wonderful country of mine, that we so fondly call the 'Rainbow Nation!'

This is the first in an exciting series by former cricketer and Mumbai Indian's fielding coach Jonty Rhodes that showcases his native South Africa through his eyes