Tour Diary
The sacred cow that is Australia
Osman Samiuddin
25-Feb-2013
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Does Australia matter? The topic came up over lunch with two Australian journalists in Melbourne at the very start of this trip. To be fair the question barely came up again unless I raised it, so it isn't as if that is such a thing to worry about. But now, as we leave, is as good a time as any to revisit, maybe broaden it.
We were talking of sacred cows in various countries; most nations have a few. One of the journalists said the matter of whether Australia matters to the rest of the world is as close to a sacred cow as you can have here. Australia was a major ally in the war on terror, he said, adding, even if the US President thought it was Austria.
It is worth reflecting upon. The country is so far from much of the world. It is also out of place; its neighbours are vastly different cultures and peoples. Perhaps that's why there is a need not only to be distinct but to be involved and known.
Full postMeeting Marais Erasmus
Marais Erasmus on his experiences as an umpire thus far, as he prepares to stand in his first Test
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
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At least four people in Cape Town will be tuning into the India-Bangladesh Test in Chittagong. A father, a wife and twin sons. Marais Erasmus is making his debut as a Test umpire tomorrow. He is chubby, friendly and slightly nervous. “Butterflies are good. I mean you should get them in your tummy, otherwise what’s the point? It is a big match for me,” he said with a laugh.
His father, who thinks his son can do no wrong, is crazy about the game and watched the first Test in Cape Town after the Second World War. Marais' wife and kids watch cricket just to see him umpire. Last month Erasmus officiated in an ODI in Rajkot which had a 5.30am start in Cape Town. “Apparently my sons got up bright and early and saw me walking out to the middle. They shouted out in joy and then went back to sleep!”
Erasmus acknowledges his experience of umpiring in the Duleep Trophy last year helped him prepare for his ODI series in India, but not for the noise levels in the stadiums. “I was, of course, told about it by the other umpires but that noise is something else. I will never forget it and you can’t prepare for something like that.”
Full postAn Ava Gardner in Hobart
As a Hollywood actress, Hobart would be Ava Gardner, with its aloof and distant beauty
Osman Samiuddin
25-Feb-2013
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When we first arrived here a few nights ago, it seemed as if we had walked into Northern Exposure, that early to mid-90s US series about a New York doctor moving to a town in Alaska. Isolation is instantly felt, befitting of a town at one edge of the world, but not that of an underdeveloped one. Hobart is fine and functional. It just moves to its own pace, one similar to other small, port cities.
As a Hollywood actress, Hobart would be Ava Gardner, with its aloof and distant beauty. Hills of a few colours, shapes and textures skirt it.
The Derwent river lurks through it, opening to greater things. The view from the press box at the Bellerive Oval, looking out at the River end, is outstanding and distracting. Hills creep up on either side of the Oval, but are kept apart by the Derwent , which seems to form a lovely crescent around the back-end of the ground from where we sit.
Full postCollingwood's broad bat
Cricket bats have become bigger and bigger in recent years to the extent that they are like railway sleepers
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
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| Paul Collingwood admires his massive equipment © Getty Images |
Cricket bats have become bigger and bigger in recent years to the extent that they are like railway sleepers. However, Paul Collingwood has taken it to the extreme by using one that really wouldn't look out of place on the West Coast Mainline.
He has been using the extra-large bat, which weighs around four-and-a-half to five pounds compared to the normal weight of just under three pounds, during nets on the South Africa tour.
"It's something the Durham second-team coach Jon Lewis came up with about six months ago,” he said. "He asked the manufacturer to make him the biggest bat possible, just to see if someone could use it in Twenty20.
Full postTuned in at the Sydney Festival
Last night I saw a kid breakdancing to some Rajasthani folk music
Osman Samiuddin
25-Feb-2013
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| The Manganiyar Seduction though, was as much a visual piece as it was aural © WireImage |
Last night I saw a kid breakdancing to some Rajasthani folk music. As an image it worked better than I thought it might. The occasion was the opening night of the Sydney Festival, a three-week affair, the first night of which is always free. The festival is a sprawling one, showcasing theatre, art, dance, comedy and much music from all over the world. It reminds me of the Edinburgh Arts Festival, though only if that had been cross-bred with some music festival from the UK summer.
We arrived at Hyde Park with just enough time left in the night for The Manganiyar Seduction to seduce us. They are a group of folk musicians from Rajasthan and the music has all the elements of the desert region. If you were from Pakistan's Sindh, for example, the Sufi strains will come through.
There are traces of Qawwali as well, but as the dhols took over, crescendoing until it seemed they couldn't anymore and going further still, the most overwhelming memory - and music can be so associated with memories and experiences of times, places, smells and people - was of Pappu Saeen and his dhols at the Shah Jamal shrine
on Thursdays in Lahore. A similar frenzy slipped into the air here, unnoticed amid smoke, strange lights and a quiet sky.
Full postA failure to connect
Covering cricket is certainly not a hardship and this tour has been especially enjoyable to follow
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
Covering cricket is certainly not a hardship and this tour has been especially enjoyable to follow. However, there are still moments that leave you cursing. Such as when you can’t find any internet access just as you have two pieces to file.
The final day of a Test is often hectic because all the issues from the game are wrapped up, but at Newlands it was extra busy courtesy of England’s latest great escape. Does Graham Onions know how much extra work he creates?
With two stories written and filed I decided to finish the day’s work back at the hotel rather than sit on my lonesome in the Cape Town press box. That idea was fine, it had worked on previous days, so I packed up and headed back to my room which was only a 10-minute walk from the ground.
Got there, unpacked the laptop and turned it on. Searched for the wireless – there it was, not very powerful but usable – and went to connect. Then the fun started. I paid for the connection period I needed and got my log-in number only for the server to tell me it couldn’t register me. Maybe I’d put the number in wrong? Tried again, nope. OK, this wasn’t looking good.
Full postThe frill-free Australian politicians
To talk to or approach the PM in Pakistan would take days and weeks
Osman Samiuddin
25-Feb-2013
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| John Howard arrived sans entourage, and mixed freely with the fans © Getty Images |
Twice in one day during this Test I saw John Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia, walking around. Once I came across him just outside the press box, as he was making his way to the broadcast booths. I initially couldn’t comprehend him being there so I thought he was a former Australian captain whose name I couldn’t remember. Only after he had gone past me did I realise.
I saw him again a little later in the day coming out of the Bradman stands at the SCG, bantering readily with fans. This is why I had trouble recognising him initially, I thought: he didn’t have an entourage with him of security, sycophants and all other kinds who usually hang around important people. He was just walking around, a man in a suit enjoying a day of cricket.
Kevin Rudd, the incumbent, has also been around. He made some hot dogs for the Jane McGrath Foundation, sat in the commentary box for a while (apparently he even predicted a 37-run win for Australia early in the Test). Earlier in the summer the defence minister was seen sitting in the stands unperturbed, watching Australia and West Indies battle it out. In New Zealand earlier, the Prime Minister spent around half an hour in the commentary box just chatting cricket.
Full postControversy dies... or does it?
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
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There’s nothing like a good controversy to spice things up. There hadn’t really been too much to get the match referee interested in this series except for Stuart Broad’s "inquiry" about the amount of time South Africa took to review his lbw decision in Centurion.
That all changed on the third day at Newlands – and Broad was again the centre of attention. A fancy piece of footwork was caught on camera as Broad stopped the ball then stepped on it with his size 12s. It soon became clear the issue was escalating and by the close South Africa had “raised concerns" about the state of the ball. That was enough to evoke the spectre of ball-tampering.
The South African media immediately latched on. “Ball tampering furore,” was the front page Cape Times headline, which didn’t leave much to the imagination. On the IOL website there was a blown-up screen shot from E.tv, the news channel, which showed a large foot about to go down onto the ball.
Full postStill swelling with pride
Luckily, he hadn't changed much
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
It's nice when people match the image you have in mind. Former Bangladesh captain Akram Khan threw up the images of a burly person lofting the spinners down the ground. Luckily, time has a way of making you forget the less memorable facets and Akram certainly was no great batsman; he didn't have a great technique and wasn't too comfortable against pace. He had a slightly odd stance and yet his physique, coupled with his captaincy and most importantly, his involvement with some of special moments in Bangladesh cricket history, had left one looking forward to a meeting with the man.
Luckily, he hadn't changed much. He was still burly, the moustache slightly more trimmed, the mop of hair still intact, and he spoke softly with a gentle smile occasionally creasing his happy face. He is currently a national selector, but it was the past that was more interesting.
Full postFlying visits
Osman Samiuddin
25-Feb-2013
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There are fewer flies in Sydney than there are in Melbourne. And in Melbourne there are more flies than I care to acquaint myself with. The subcontinent clearly isn’t fly-less. But Australian flies are what we in Urdu call dheet: they are stubborn and persistent and they know it, which makes it worse. On the many walks in that city, my companions were mostly flies, having a word in my ear, giving me a kiss, counting the number of eyelashes I have left.
Lesser men than I have had similarly famous troubles of course. Some Englishman called Douglas Jardine spent most of a trip to this country in 1932-33 swatting away flies in some little ground somewhere in the back of beyond. A watching spectator, an enlightened by the name of Yabba, politely told him to stop annoying the flies. “Leave those flies alone, they’re the only friends you have here.”
These kinds of friends I can do without. Sydney, more humid as it is, should have more, but this being such a big city perhaps, they are busy doing the other things that you do in a big city, like working 9 to 5 and, to quote a local, pilates and yoga and coffee and things.
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