Tour Diary
When Britain sneezes, it's time to panic
It’s swine flu season and the Australian team has asked one of the touring journalists to stay away from them for three days after a suspected case of the disease
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
It’s swine flu season and the Australian team has asked one of the touring journalists to stay away from them for three days after a suspected case of the disease. There are many moments when the players would like to insist on a reporter being in quarantine (on one occasion in Worcester a reporter was uninvited from a press conference), but unfortunately for them it takes a pandemic to shut down some of the questions.
I don’t have it yet, but I think the guy in the pin-striped suit who sneezed on me this morning did. All over my paper. Britain seems to be the swine flu capital of the world at the moment and everyone seems to be sizing up each other’s health on the trains and buses. Life in the parks is much cleaner. There it’s the runners that make me feel sick.
Finding time to do any exercise other than walking up stairs or to the tube is kind of hard on tour, but in Kensington Gardens people pound their own tracks in the grass, passing Princess Diana’s former residence, or breezing past on bikes, pretending they are across the Channel in the Tour de France. Over there Cadel Evans is doing as well as the Australian cricket team did at Lord’s.
Evans, who is backing up after two second places in the race, is going downhill faster than Mitchell Johnson on the Lord’s slope. He started well before losing his rhythm and form while the Australians were at Lord’s. Unlike his countrymen, he is no longer in contention for one of sport’s greatest prizes.
Full postA week of genteel relief
At lunch at the Nursery End you really have no choice where you end up as the crowd river sweeps you along
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
At lunch at the Nursery End you really have no choice where you end up as the crowd river sweeps you along. Yesterday I was deposited on the bank next to the Wolf Blass Wine stall. Hmmm, what to do? Fortunately they were offering Chardonnay Semillon, something which gives me a headache as I’m drinking it instead of after.
Slipping back into the stream of people I found some friends who were lunching on the Nursery Ground outfield. Lord’s is a trustworthy place, where spectators are allowed to bring in a bottle of wine or a few beers to sip during the day. Nothing like that in Australia, where cans often go straight from the hand to the feet of fine leg. One day at the SCG Pat Symcox, the South Africa spinner, had an un-nibbled roast chicken hurled at him and one night at the Gabba there was an announcement over the PA saying anyone seen throwing paper planes on to the field will be ejected. Plastics cup of light beer have since been introduced at most grounds.
Being at Lord’s demands good behaviour. No streakers, no protestors and no stands full of people singing insults to great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren of convicts. It’s one week of genteel relief. Out the back of the pavilion there are picnics in the Coronation Gardens and clinking glasses brought from home. Can’t imagine that happening at Edgbaston or the Gabba.
Full postAt Lord's as a 13-year old
My first day of a Lord’s Test was in 1991 , as a 13-year-old, and entry was obtained in a particularly Australian way
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
My first day of a Lord’s Test was in 1991, as a 13-year-old, and entry was obtained in a particularly Australian way. Sri Lanka were playing a one-off match and my Dad was carrying a Melbourne Cricket Club badge loaned to him by a friend while we went on holiday. Dressed like Australian tourists, we turned up at the gate on the final day knowing that the southern hemisphere MCC had reciprocal rights with the original. We thought we’d either get into the pavilion or turned away – if that latter happened we wouldn’t pay to get in (too expensive), and it would have to be London sightseeing with the other half of the family.
The gateman, more polite than we’d heard about, let both of us in on one tiny badge but suggested it might be best if we didn’t head to the pavilion. Maybe it was because we were wearing shorts, not the required jacket or tie, or perhaps he remembered my Dad’s behaviour when Bob Massie took 16 wickets here in 1972. We sat underneath where the media centre would be built in time for the 1999 World Cup, surrounded by cheering Sri Lankan fans who were failing to inspire their over-powered heroes.
Two things stand out: Graham Gooch looking old and dropping a catch running back towards us; and a young Sanath Jayasuriya making a half-century at No. 6. Jayasuriya, then 22, was much classier than most of his team-mates and we wondered why he was batting so low. This time I’m sitting right behind the bowler’s arm in the Nursery End space. It’s luxury compared to the previous visit, but not as noisy as the media centre is almost soundproof.
Full postTreasures of the Lord's museum
The Sheffield Shield once spent a night in my house and currently it resides in the Lord’s museum, which must be a bit of a pain for Victoria, who won Australia’s domestic trophy in March for the first time in six seasons
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
The Sheffield Shield once spent a night in my house and currently it resides in the Lord’s museum, which must be a bit of a pain for Victoria, who won Australia’s domestic trophy in March for the first time in six seasons. It’s around the corner from the Ashes, the tiny urn which still has a bit missing from the cork, like it was hacked away by a pirate expecting whiskey instead of dust. Since the Shield slept in my lounge on its trip around Queensland to mark the team’s drought-breaking win in 1995, it’s undergone the sort of renovation expected of a middle-aged divorcee.
The frumpy blue felt was locked away in a cupboard at Cricket Australia’s offices while the organisation had an affair with a milk company and its shiny new trophy. When those cheques stopped arriving the Shield was restored, changing colours and faces with some intricate make-up. It looks familiar but, like a Trinny & Susannah makeover, you go searching for the person underneath the facade. Anyway, it’s great that it’s the first-class domestic reward again and it was bought originally with Lord Sheffield’s money, so it’s a worthy exhibit during an Ashes series.
My favourite piece in the museum is a mystery body part of Denis Compton’s. It was handed in by Compton’s surgeon who thought it was a knee cap. However, the tag below the off-white bone reads: “It’s now thought to be his hip joint removed in his second operation.” I’m glad he’s not my doctor.
Full postInside the spaceship
A few times in the lead-up to the second Test, sitting in the spaceship which doubles as the media centre, I was consumed by typing or talking and forgot briefly where I was
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
A few times in the lead-up to the second Test, sitting in the spaceship which doubles as the media centre, I was consumed by typing or talking and forgot briefly where I was. Looking up from the screen snapped me back, with the imposing and magical pavilion staring straight back. It is the most majestic place to watch cricket, a treat I once had when Middlesex played Nottinghamshire in a Championship game, and is as high as the neighbouring stands.
It’s hard to think of sixes rattling into the base of the pavilion, which sits behind an already long straight boundary, but a few men have managed to bump it near the top. Only Albert Trott, who played for both Australia and England, has managed to clear it, and it’s unlikely anyone will aim for glory in this match. (If there’s a betting market on it Mitchell Johnson is my tip.)
Kim Hughes and Keith Miller have smashed the top of the building, with Miller commentating when Hughes sent a Chris Old delivery 125 metres during the Centenary Test of 1980. “Those in the vicinity maintain the ball was rising still as it struck the top deck of the pavilion,” wrote Chris Ryan in Golden Boy.
In the commentary box Miller, who peppered the structure during the Dominion Tests, was asked if he’d seen a bigger six at the ground. “Well, I hit a couple there myself, oddly enough,” he said. “But not many have. That is one of the biggest hits I’ve seen for many, many a year. On top of the balcony.”
Full postA first Ashes Test at Lord's
Walking into Lord’s and suddenly I remember I’ve never been to an Ashes Test there
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Walking into Lord’s and suddenly I remember I’ve never been to an Ashes Test there. I spent three years in London, starting in 2001, but couldn’t get tickets for the big match. Instead I had to be satisfied with seeing Australia lose to Middlesex in a one-day game and learning of a great pub crawl starting at the Lord’s Tavern and ending at Warwick Avenue tube. The following summer, by which time that hangover had finally eased, I went to the India Test and a 50-over final as well as a few county games. Suddenly I’m more excited – only two more sleeps!
Inside the ground there are tour groups full of green-and-gold decked tourists who trawl in awe through the ground, media centre and museum, where the urn sits along with the Sheffield Shield (at least that’s a temporary exhibit; the Ashes live here). While photos are being taken on the edge of the ground I spot a chance to step on to the outfield, but the staff are quick to block it off. If only I was swifter on my feet.
In the afternoon some of the game’s bigger names talk after their MCC cricket committee meeting. Steve Waugh is there, attracting my stares as I remember his great deeds before both our hairstyles started to change colour, and Geoffrey Boycott, who dominates when he speaks and even gets his panelists to laugh at the forceful mode of delivery. Rahul Dravid is deferential, sweating when he pats back an answer on whether India would warm to a World Champions of Test cricket.
There is talk of umpiring and dead pitches, pink balls and day-night Tests, Twenty20 and IPL, but the only mention of the Ashes is allowed when the Spirit of Cricket issue is raised about Sunday’s finish in Cardiff. Outside the teams are training, the pitch is being rolled and the ground is being polished. It’s the only contest being discussed – except in here.
Full postLet the music play
Cricket in Sri Lanka and the brass bands are inseparable commodities
Sidharth Monga
25-Feb-2013
Cricket in Sri Lanka and the brass bands are inseparable commodities. It's just such a day-long party, an existence outside cricket yet so much a part of it. Watching on TV, questions have always cropped up. What music do they play when Sri Lanka is not doing well, for they hardly ever stop playing? More curiously, how do they play Hindi songs, obscure ones at that, which many in India have forgotten too? And do they belong in Test cricket?
There are two endearing answers to the first two questions. "We don't play according to the match, we play according to the crowd. As long as the crowd is up to it, we keep playing," says the bandmaster at the P Sara Oval.
For the answer to the second question, we need to know they don't understand or speak Hindi. Ask them about the Hindi tunes, and they can sing the first two lines of many songs, perfectly in tune. Mere sapno ki rani (they don't know the album), Dekha hai pehli baar (Saajan, they know), Love in Tokyo (they don't know), Meet na mila (Abhimaan, they know), and many others. How do they learn playing them? "So what if we don't understand the language, we are crazy about the Hindi music," says the bandmaster. Music has some power, for somebody to be able to hum the lines they have no idea what they mean.
The third question has more complex answers, and more personal ones. They are enjoyable in a boring Test match, but when it is engrossing play, perhaps they seem out of place. More at home in limited-overs cricket. Boundary fielders, all alone in a crowd when under a skier, can't like it too.
Full postOverwhelming Welsh hospitality
I currently feel like an International Olympic Committee delegate on a fact-finding mission, bulging with gifts and being indulged wherever I go
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
I currently feel like an International Olympic Committee delegate on a fact-finding mission, bulging with gifts and being indulged wherever I go. The Welsh people may be the nicest on earth. Or at least the ones involved in the staging of the Test are, smiling and asking questions as if they really are interested in how well I slept. They are in the park offering directions, at the gate checking tickets, pressing the buttons for the lift, welcoming me at the top of the lift, opening doors, offering food and drinks. So much food and drink.
Free gifts and functions have dominated the first two days. I hope a longer belt comes next. In the interests of transparency and full disclosure, things recently missing from the accounts of some British MPs, here is a list of the sweetners: a hip flask (given away to a more worthy recipient), whiskey, rain jacket, headset, thermos, mug, Welsh dragon soft toy, satchel, memory sticks, notebooks, drink vouchers, dinner invitations. I think that’s everything.
For Wales, this isn’t so much about getting its first Test, as being a regular five-day venue for future engagements. In England it wasn’t – and in some sections still isn’t – a popular choice for the opening Ashes encounter and there is an intense charm offensive here to remove the doubt from the doubters.
A reception was held in the awesome Cardiff Castle last night, where guests stood in the banquet room admiring the artwork on the walls, the views out the tiny windows, the narrow hallways with lots of exits for Robin Hood-types, and the Welsh rarebit (swanky cheese on toast). Still, not everyone was happy.
Full postAustralia's uptapped talent
Three spinners are bowling in this game but there are no leggies
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
Three spinners are bowling in this game but there are no leggies. It’s a strange sight for an Australian team that has had one on their past six tours of England. In the stands today there was a promising wrist-spinner who operates in the same style as Shane Warne, mimicking his action and dying his hair blonde.
Chris Swain is an 18-year-old from the Queensland country town of Rockhampton and he was walking around Sophia Gardens with his team-mates in the Australian indigenous development squad. He is nicknamed “Princess” by his best mate Preston White, who has batted well in the early Twenty20 games, and gave up a career in hairdressing to focus more on his cricket.
Swain has been picking up some wickets in their matches in London and was watching his first Test. “It’s a fair way, but it’s worth it,” he said. Next week the players will be back in the capital but Lord’s is too crammed for them to get seats at Australia’s second match.
After lunch Daniel Christian, the captain, and Swain met up with Jason Gillespie, Australia’s only Test player with Aboriginal heritage, having a great-grandfather who was a Kamilaroi warrior. It is one of the country’s great cricket disappointments that there have been no direct indigenous representatives. Cricket Australia is desperate to rectify the problem and Matthew Hayden has joined the search since his retirement in January.
Full postThe Cardiff Castle
The Ashes is one of sport’s oldest contests but the 122-year rivalry of England-Australia is nothing compared to some of the landmarks around the country
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
The Ashes is one of sport’s oldest contests but the 122-year rivalry of England-Australia is nothing compared to some of the landmarks around the country. The Cardiff Castle carries “2000 years of history”, making international cricket seem like an embryo in comparison.
There’s a palace, a battlement walk and wartime tunnels, but I like the falconry enclave, where the goggle-eyed birds of prey preen and show off their weaponry of talons and beaks. In the old days these sorts of castles would have had a falconer, and the sight of them brings back memories of William Butler Yeats’ The Second Coming, which was studied briefly in high school.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold ...
Not much chance of things falling apart in here as the birds, which perch on a small stump of wood, are on a short, tough leash. They stand like slip fielders, waiting for their chance to fly and catch.
Full post