Tour Diary
A sporty paradise
There is one thing South Africans and Australians have in common. People from both countries love sport. And for the most part, both are pretty good at it
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
There is one thing South Africans and Australians have in common. People from both countries love sport. And for the most part, both are pretty good at it.
Before last year, they were the only two countries to have won two rugby World Cups each and although Australia's record in major cricket tournament far exceeds South Africa's, they have both been Test No.1s. Of course there is one major difference between them as well. While South Africa are dominant in some things, Australia actually excel at everything.
Beyond those two sports, Australia's footballing record has regularly seen them punch above their weight, they have performers who continually impress at Tennis Grand Slams - most recently Samantha Stosur - and they always return with armfuls of medals from Olympic Games. Apart from golf, South Africa cannot compete with them on those levels.
Full postMasterful menu for would-be Test masters
Duck was not in the menu but Derby County Cricket Ground has probably never seen such as a spread
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
Duck was not in the menu but Derby County Cricket Ground has probably never seen such as a spread. The South Africa team were treated to a gourmet meal courtesy of the country's first Masterchef winner, Deena Naidoo, who was flown to the UK specifically to cook for the team by pay-channel broadcaster M-Net.
Naidoo won the TV cookery title little over two weeks ago and is in the process of setting up a restaurant in Johannesburg as part of his prize. For a special insert on the channel, Naidoo presented a three-course meal to the squad, because "they are on the verge of becoming the No. 1 side in the world," one of the producers said.
Although the feast could have been prepared for the national rugby team, who have convened in Cape Town, or the Olympic athletes who are in London, the cricket squad was chosen by media mogul Koos Bekker, who is the chief executive of M-Net. South Africa still have one Test match to go, the Lord's fixture which starts next Thursday, which they must not lose if they hope to top the Test rankings but Masterchef were only able to get access to them in a week that did not include an international match.
Full postLonely Hambantota, lovely Pallekele
Hambantota and Pallekele. Two names we had heard frequently and always together in the run up to the 2011 World Cup, as the locations for the new stadiums Sri Lanka was building
Abhishek Purohit
25-Feb-2013
Hambantota and Pallekele. Two names we had heard frequently and always together in the run up to the 2011 World Cup, as the locations for the new stadiums Sri Lanka was building. Both modern facilities, with grandstands and grass banks. One close to the southern coast; one in the mountains. Both amid forests. One difficult to access, one comfortably reachable.
The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium has to be one of the remotest grounds in cricket. It takes its name from the coastal town of Hambantota, but is located at least 35km north of it. That would have been still bearable but apart from the hotel where the teams stay, there hardly seem to be any decent hotels in Hambantota town. Our hotel is in Tissamaharama, a town north-east of Hambantota and close to the Yala National Park. The town is surrounded by lakes and fields. The stadium is around 60km away.
One has to take the road southwest towards Hambantota and then turn northwards for the ground. The second leg of the journey is a completely out-of-place looking four-lane stretch. You train your eyes on the horizon, and struggle to count even four vehicles using the road. A thick forest lies on both sides. Forget a stadium, you'll be lucky to spot a house or two. Just when you actually start to think that you might have taken the wrong route, the stadium rises suddenly out of the forest. We have drop-in pitches, this seems like a drop-in stadium. There is next to nothing close by. At night the ground glistens in floodlights surrounded by endless darkness.
Full postTime for a ladies tea
It's not often that something in cricket is done with ladies in mind
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
It's not often that something in cricket is done with ladies in mind. While the women's game and interest around it has grown, it will be many years before it is regarded the same way as the men's. For now, the participation of female representatives remains limited.
Often I am the only woman journalist on a full length tour, although I sometimes meet girlfriends along the way. At home, Jenny Bernstein of the South African Press Association is my BFF, in India ESPNcricinfo's Sharda Ugra and I chat over tea and in England I have bumped into, lunched and dined with Elizabeth Ammon and Sarah Ansell of SPIN cricket and Alison Mitchell of the BBC. But in places like New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, I've flown solo.
Don't think of that as a complaint. I've been lucky to have been accepted by my male colleagues as one of the boys and most of the time, there's no-one I'd rather be. But on the days when we go from eight hours of working on the cricket to four hours of watching rugby in the pub to endless conversations about golf swings, football leagues and boxing matches, it can get a little lonely.
Full postAlways connected in the world of cricket
It does not matter how small the world gets, it will never get smaller than cricket. Like a large, extended family, everyone knows everyone else, because they know somebody who knows the person they are meeting, somehow
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
It does not matter how small the world gets, it will never get smaller than cricket. Like a large, extended family, everyone knows everyone else, because they know somebody who knows the person they are meeting, somehow.
It's a connected little world, however vague or thin those connections are. Cricket people nurture and foster these links with great pride, which is why there's every chance that when you walk into a ground, be it in Wayamba or in Worcester, someone will know someone you know.
That's what happened at New Road. While watching the South Africa team's optional practice - where the highlight was seeing triple centurion Hashim Amla giving throw-downs to the boys who did not bat at The Oval, such as JP Duminy - a man in a blue shirt approached the South African contingent.
Full postThe English crowd experience
Generosity. It's not what you expect from a crowd that has paid to get something. But it is what The Oval crowd was all about
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
Generosity. It's not what you expect from a crowd that has paid to get something. But it is what The Oval crowd was all about.
They gave it to South Africa's bowlers throughout the match, but particularly on the first day when Imran Tahir was their main target, they gave it to their own batsmen, mostly in support but occasionally in jest and they opened their wallets for five days straight and gave their money to Surrey County Cricket Club.
It was not small change either. The average ticket cost £75. Ask that much at the gate in South Africa - almost R1000 - and no-one would go to the cricket. You can imagine the surprise then when more than 100,000 people streamed through the gates over the course of five days to watch the home side lose, in a spectacle that took the better part of four days to play out.
Full postThe colourful drive to Hambantota
Slight trepidation as I queue up in immigration at Mumbai airport for my first international flight. The bureaucratic expression of the officer turns into a broad smile as I answer 'cricket' to his question 'purpose of visit'
Abhishek Purohit
25-Feb-2013
Slight trepidation as I queue up in immigration at Mumbai airport for my first international flight. The bureaucratic expression of the officer turns into a broad smile as I answer 'cricket' to his question 'purpose of visit'. "You are the first person, at least in my queue, going for this Sri Lanka series," he says. I settle into my window seat on the flight, and watch Juhu beach disappear quickly from sight. Didn't know it would happen, but there is an air of finality to the moment the plane crosses the last lights of the southern Indian mainland and the blackness of the sea takes over.
Colombo arrives in a flood of bright white lights, as opposed to the neon yellow of most Indian cities. The southern coastal town of Hambantota, the venue for the first two ODIs, is a long drive away. Our car, an old Nissan model, bypasses Colombo city, taking a two-lane road towards Ratnapura in central Sri Lanka. Apart from the fact that it is narrow, the road is in top condition. Hardly a jolt. This isn't India, alright. Here, they call two-lane roads what they are to be called - roads. Good or bad, but still a road. Unlike in India, where anything connecting two cities passes for a highway. Good or bad.
There is one thing common, though. Overtaking. Taxis, buses, trucks, everyone wants to overtake. It is a fine art, overtaking. Requires courage and skill on a two-lane road.
Full postThe Pakistan journalists go AWOL
Not surprisingly, a question I was often asked, especially in the smaller towns like Hambantota, Galle and Kandy, was "are you from Pakistan?"
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Not surprisingly, a question I was often asked, especially in the smaller towns like Hambantota, Galle and Kandy, was "are you from Pakistan?" My face may have been the most obvious giveaway and my accent meant that I couldn't pass off for a local. I had to explain that I had come from India, covering a series between two teams as a neutral. The advantage with being a neutral is that you're more or less free of leg-pulls from the local journalists.
It comes with its challenges too, especially when it comes to the spoken language. I was caught in one such awkward situation when Tillakaratne Dilshan gave a press conference during the one-day series in Colombo. The Pakistan journalists gave it a miss, leaving me as the odd one out among the Sri Lankan journalists. Perhaps Dilshan didn't notice. The questions were in Sinhalese and so were the answers. In such situations, it's a bit difficult to figure out if the particular question you wanted to ask has already been asked. I had absolutely no clue what was being talked about. I waited for a break and posed a question on his current batting form. Dilshan was caught a bit off guard by the sudden change of language. He duly answered the question. But I realised that I had sidetracked Dilshan from the hot-topic of the day - his captaincy, why he gave it up and his comments on Mahela Jayawardene possibly staying captain till the 2015 World Cup. I got the quotes translated and, not surprisingly, I didn't bother mentioning my question in the copy because it seemed irrelevant.
The press conferences were fairly hassle free, sometimes conducted with just a handful of journalists. Mohammad Hafeez was perplexed by the absence of Pakistan journalists in one such presser. When Misbah-ul-Haq walked in for the final presser of the tour in Pallekele, he appeared amused that there were no Pakistan journalists there either. He must have expected the brickbats and testing questions that usually torment captains after a series loss. He couldn't have had it easier.
Full postOn to Canterbury after the trials of Taunton
It was raining in Canterbury but the weather cleared sufficiently for both cricket and sightseeing - a tour of the magnificent cathedral
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
One week, two injuries and some cricket. And the tour has not even properly started.
The last few days will likely be remembered as ones that abruptly reshaped South African cricket. Mark Boucher has retired. We all knew it was coming. But, it was supposed to come in six weeks' time, when Boucher finished his career at Lord's. The way it actually came was cruel.
Boucher has been playing cricket for as long as I have been a journalist. My fondest memory of him was an interview in February, when he spoke about his decision to retire. Cobras were playing Lions in the final round of the SuperSport Series, a match they had to win to be champions. The Lions put up stubborn resistance and the game ended in a draw, which left the Cobras in second place.
Full postA South African touch to Somerset
So this is it. The tour everyone wants to go on. The visit to the country that is the home of cricket which will culminate with a Test at ground known as the home of cricket
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
So this is it. The tour everyone wants to go on. The visit to the country that is the home of cricket which will culminate with a Test at ground known as the home of cricket.
It's supposed to be cricket everywhere. Not just any kind of cricket. Cricket the old-fashioned, white-picket fence, actual tea at tea-time kind of way. Cricket from the story books and I'm getting to write my own.
After taking the long way around, which included a seven-hour stopover in Abu Dhabi, Paddington Station arrived with the same rush as the train that took me to it. With time to kill and curiosity bubbling, my first stop was a coffee shop where a chat with a lady led to a strange co-incidence.
Full post