When Seth Burkett answers a tweet calling for overseas players to join a professional Sri Lankan football team in a new tournament, he has no idea what awaits him. The team is Trinco Titans, owned by Sri Lankan cricketing legends Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, and he will be spending the summer playing in the North Eastern Premier League.
Unfortunately, he is in the dark about the quality of football, the standard of pitches, the delicate local political tensions, even the dates of the fixtures…
Before long, he is fully immersed in the Titans family, experiencing everything the country has to offer him: new friendships, picture-postcard beaches, a relaxed approach to organisation and time-keeping, thousands of new Facebook followers, and a crash course in the Teardrop Isle’s recent troubled history. There will be results to forget but it will be a summer to remember.