Tour Diary

It has been more than 36 years but John Bowry remembers the day vividly. He was playing for St Kitts in the 1969-70 Leeward Islands tournament in Antigua when he came against a fella called Viv Richards. Read on for an interesting anecdote:

"It was his first tournament and when we reached in Antigua, we were told he was going to kill us. Antigua won the toss and elected to bat. We didn't breach with the new ball and my captain called on me to bowl. In the first over I dismissed a batsman by the name Pat Martin and Richards came in and on my second ball to him he was caught bat-pad at leg slip. I bowled a straighter one and it bounced. He pushed forward and it came off his glove and the guy at leg-slip took it.

Stoppages in play aren’t uncommon and this series has had its fair share. There’s been rain, plenty of it, bad light and good light – play was bizarrely not started because the umpires “expected” the rains to come. An umpiring botch up played it’s part in a 15-minute stoppage – when Ganga caught and everyone was caught napping – and in a tribute to Sachin Tendulkar, there’ve been sight-screen hassles.

At 5pm on the fourth day, a fire alarm stopped play. For nearly five minutes, the umpires and the players watched bemused as the sirens went off in various corners. Kumble was getting ready to bowl but there was no way Rudi Koertzen was going to allow proceedings to start. The alarm went off yesterday as well, just that it happened during the lunch break and nobody seemed to take it too seriously. The best part about the whole episode was that nobody appeared to want to find out about the fire, and if at all there was any, but instead focused on turning the "damn thing" off. If only there had been a real fire, it would have been a classic case of Nero playing cricket when Rome burnt.

Life in the press box, these days at least, is making heads spin. With television sets placed on the sides, one needs to turn either way see what went on. Now if you miss any portion of the action and quickly turn to the TV screen, all you're likely to see is World Cup football. So when I missed a loud appeal for lbw, against Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and quickly turned left, all I see is David Beckham fumbling on a long-range pass. Was the ball pitched in line? Was it hitting outside off? Was it too high? Was it missing leg? All I know is that it was missing leg, only that the leg was Beckham's bumbling right foot.

The imposing figure of Andy Atkinson seems to be all over Warner Park. Sometimes he's gardening the pitch, sometimes tending to the outfield, sometimes instructing the ground staff, sometimes trying to do all of these. The bulk is unmistakable, the enthusiasm admirable.

Today, when a bout of showers interrupted preparations, he ensured that the covers were completely in place, got drenched in the process and only then left. Hardly a few seconds after the showers stopped, he was behind the wheel of the ‘super-sopper’, spinning away at various angles.

India have seen him earlier, most prominently when they went to Pakistan in 2003-04. He was accused, by Inzamam-ul-Haq, of preparing pitches that didn't favour his bowlers. The battle got so intense that, when Inzamam accused him of shaving off the grass on the pitch, Atkinson hit back by shaving off his moustache, cheekily adding, "Inzy asked me to shave it off".

	Just a few feet from the club ground lies Sir Frank Worrell's childhood home © Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

Nestled amid residential areas, just on the outskirts of Bridgetown, is the Empire Cricket Club. One look at the alumni list and you know why it’s universally regarded as the greatest club ever.

Empire Club might not even have existed had Herman Griffith, the former West Indian fast bowler, not been turned down by Spartan, the rival body. Griffith despite repeated attempts was spurned by Spartan, owing to the strict class structure that existed that the time. He then decided to form his own club. Curiously enough, it was formed on May 24, 1914 (Empire Day) and got its name as a result.

Most of the members stayed close by – Sir Frank Worrell grew up in a house that overlooks the club ground – and there was a slant towards good manners and behaviour. A sign on one of the walls – “No obscene language” - sums up this attitude. More than 92 years on, the club can look back proudly at its rich legacy. It’s probably the only club in the world to have three knighted members as alumni and would be tough to beat in the fast bowling stakes as well. An attempt to pick an all-time XI throws up a formidable side.

With an eight-days gap between the second and third Tests, I decided to take a diversion and pop into Barbados. Unlike any of the other islands we’ve visited, Barbados seemed to have an English feel about it. The Grantley Adams International Airport is a truly sleek construction, unlike the miniature settings in the other cities, and one could immediately sense the opulence floating through the country. The conversion rate tells you a story (1 USD is equivalent to 2 Bajan dollars). Needless to say, considering that the country primarily depends on tourism, it’s a beauty.

Strangely, this is the first island where one can feel the interest in cricket. In the other islands one saw a few stray instances of park/street/beach cricket – maybe it’s all because of my faulty eyes - but the passion wasn’t palpable. The ongoing football World Cup has obviously drawn a few away but the Bajans, it appears, still have time for the cricket. Club games abound in weekends and it’s pleasantly surprising to see around 50-100 spectators at a game between two top teams. As Ryan Hinds, playing for Empire Club, clobbered the trundling medium-pacers to different corners of the Banks Brewery ground, several enthusiasts gulped their beers and talked their cricket.

Talking cricket in the Caribbean has its own charm. One often gets into an endless conversation that shifts from topic to topic and soon realises the deep understanding of the game that the average West Indian fan possesses. A batsman’s technique is often scrutinised till its last detail and comparisons are often made with names from the past. As time flies, with the alcohol intake gradually increasing, one is likely to witness raucous arguments about who was greater than who and similar such. Hinds, meanwhile, continues to pound the Banks club bowling to pulp.

It must be special to be chosen one among 160,000. Darren Sammy, the only international cricketer from St Lucia, knows the feeling. Darren played his first game in the previous edition of the Champions Trophy (which West Indies memorably won) and soon realised the enormity of his achievement. “There were more than a thousand people in the airport when I returned,” he beams, “and I realised how much it meant to the people.”

It was a triumph of sorts. His father was just 19 years old when Darren was born (his mother was staggeringly just 15) and didn’t have a steady source of income. Even later, when he worked in banana plantations, there was no guarantee of a rich crop every year. Darren himself experienced several days of working in the fields – starting as early as 6am – and had to wait till 4pm to begin his cricket practice. Luckily for him, his parents didn’t compromise on his education, a fact that helped him to play cricket in school.

What are two Englishmen doing in an India v West Indies Test? Watching, maybe. Peter Chismon and Danny Byrne are two globetrotting fans, who travel to various venues, irrespective of the sides playing. Both try their best to visit new venues – they were at Fatullah and Chittagong for the Australia series recently – and decided to watch the India Tests at St Lucia and St Kitts.

Chismon, a 64-year-old from Ipswich, who retired from his job of selling guns at West End a few years ago, concentrates on the game by scoring it. He makes sure he scores the game whenever he visits a venue for the first time and proudly shows his notepad where he scored the recent Australia-Bangladesh Test at Chittagong. Jason Gillespie, whose double-hundred in that match sent heads spinning in various directions, was kind enough to autograph it. That tour to Bangladesh also meant that Chismon had now watched cricket in all Test playing nations.

The Mohammad Kaif press conference, at the end of the second day's play, had a special visitor. Sitting among the journalists was a certain Dhoni, observing the questions being asked and Kaif's responses to them. He couldn't hold himself back from smirking at a couple of questions and finally, when he realised he had to go, put his hand up and shouted out (in Hindi): "How do you plan to celebrate this century?".

Kaif treated it like any other question, though, and patted it back calmly: "There are still three days to go, we need to make sure we win this Test. We will think of celebrating after that." Dhoni had his fill and he soon walked off, asking Kaif to join the rest of the boys at the beach when he had finished.

A few days back, in a sponsored party where both teams were invited, Dhoni decided to take the lead and try out a game of dominoes. Not only did he learn the rules quickly, but also managed to pick up a few nuances by observing closely. Within a few minutes, he was on his way, partnering Kaif in a victorious debut campaign. Given a choice between holding back and having a go, there's normally only one route Dhoni will choose.