Tour Diary

It's all happening at the Kingston Cricket Club at Sabina Park. Nothing to do with cricket, but a small matter of around 40 fans watching Arsenal take on Barcelona in the Champions League final. Support is divided. Raucous noise threatens to shatter a few glass bottles in the bar. The referee, being an easy target to vent spleen, dies a thousand deaths. Either way he is doomed – the abuses are guaranteed.

25-Feb-2013

Arsenal lose one man. Mayhem. Arsenal score. Mayhem. Soon after half-time, the bar manager realises that people are more interested in the football than in his beer. He promptly switches off the television. Says there's construction work to be completed ahead of the India-West Indies cricket match.

'Slow death' at Montego Bay

A smiling slow death © Cricinfo

25-Feb-2013

The setting for the Indians’ opening fixture of the West Indian tour was in stark contrast to what they experienced in Pakistan, on their previous overseas tour, five months ago. In January this year, they kicked off their campaign against Pakistan A at Bagh-e-Jinnah, a pastoral setting in Lahore, in extremely chilly conditions.

Security concerns prompted the authorities to disallow the fans into the arena and eager spectators watched from beyond the pickets. It was more like watching an exhibition match with the mute button turned on.

Jarrett Park was quite the opposite. Around 4000 enthusiasts packed the picturesque football stadium – the last international side to play here was England, back in 1998 - and created a carnival atmosphere. A commentator kept them updated with the goings-on and triggered several moments of mirth with his jocular style.

Baldheads - the new dread

No sooner had the Indians recovered from the jet-lag, than they unleashed their latest fashion statement - Baldheads Unlimited

No sooner had the Indians recovered from the jet-lag, than they unleashed their latest fashion statement - Baldheads Unlimited. Sreesanth set things rolling even before leaving India, and it didn't take too long for Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina to catch on.

25-Feb-2013

Sreesanth, it is learnt, shaved his head for religious reasons but Pathan and Raina joined the when-in-Windies-do-as-the-locals-do brigade couple of days after landing.

Rockstar MSD (Dhoni to some) had showed early signs of this revolution a few weeks back, when he chopped off his bobbing mane and cited 'tremendous heat and humidity in the Caribbean' to be the main reason. "But I will let it grow now," he revealed, "and by the end of the tour, it should be back to its earlier splendour."

Melbourne in Kingston

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Kingston, at the end of Courtney Walsh Drive, is the Melbourne Cricket Club

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Kingston, at the end of Courtney Walsh Drive, is the Melbourne Cricket Club. Founded way back in 1892, the club boasts a glittering array of alumni, serving as a feeder for Jamaica's state team. Arthur Barrett and Sam Morgan led the way; Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh, who is the current president, have ends named after them; Marlon Samuels and Carlton Baugh jr carry on the tradition.

25-Feb-2013

Like Sabina Park, it has a bar near the pavilion, with photographs of famous teams decorating the walls. The dressing room is quaint – with wooden benches arranged in a classroom-like setting and shelves on one wall that act as kit-bag enclosures. One of the shelves has a rusty label that says C Walsh. He’s all over town this fella – in his bar Cuddyz in New Kingston, in his sports shop in Courtney Walsh boulevard, in Sabina Park ...

Rum, coffee, Marley and cricket

Long flight journeys and slow-moving immigration queues can get tedious. I was half asleep while exchanging my currency at Heathrow airport, almost mistaking a five hundred dollar note for a fifty. Despite wanting to enjoy the country side, and despite Dire Straits blaring into my ears, I ended up snoozing on the bus to Gatwick.

25-Feb-2013

But sometime before noon, with my watch still showing Mumbai time and with my thoughts focused firmly on sleep, I entered a quite exotic world. It was something I had only seen on television and read about. I had just checked into the British Airways flight to Kingston.

Ring of Fire

Freddie Flintoff loves his music and he loves singing

Freddie Flintoff loves his music and he loves singing. More specifically, he loves his rock ‘n’ roll and is not averse to a burst of Elvis Presley’s ‘Suspicious Minds’.

25-Feb-2013

So it was no surprise to hear that music played a part in England’s victory in Mumbai. Flintoff was asked by an Indian reporter to explain the significance of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’. Flintoff could barely keep a straight face. “It’s just a song that the boys like,” he demurred.

Flintoff knew the real connection but it would have been impolite to explain that the song’s title is an unintended reference to, er, the after-effects of eating spicy food. The song became England’s tour anthem during the pre-Christmas trip to Pakistan.

I’m told that the atmosphere in the England dressing room during the lunch interval on the final day was akin to a rugby match. With ‘Ring of Fire’ blaring out full blast, the players whipped themselves up into a hand-clapping, feet-stomping frenzy.

Sachin puts his hand up

Duncan Fletcher’s public utterances are few and far between and rarely memorable

Duncan Fletcher’s public utterances are few and far between and rarely memorable. But there is usually a waspish sting in the tail.

25-Feb-2013

Last night he was being lightly grilled about England’s dilatory run rate as they attempted to set India a target. Having explained how hard it was for the batsmen, the coach said: “In Pakistan we were told we scoring too quickly and that we needed to be more patient. Now we’re scoring too slowly. It’s pretty hard to please you people.”

Not hard, Duncan, impossible.

Rivalling the British press in the fickleness stakes is the Wankhede crowd. Not 48 hours since Sachin Tendulkar was lampooned by his own people, he was welcomed shamelessly back yesterday into the bosom of his home city.

Call the Engineer

After the hoo-ha about the booing of Sachin Tendulkar, the Wankhede crowd again came under scrutiny yesterday.

After the hoo-ha about the booing of Sachin Tendulkar, the Wankhede crowd again came under scrutiny yesterday.

25-Feb-2013

Midway through the afternoon, Farokh Engineer, the India and Lancashire wicket-keeper from the 60s and 70s, took it upon himself to make an announcement to the assembled media.

I figured he was about to indulge in a spot of self-promotion, perhaps for a charitable foundation or some such.

No, he was issuing an apology on behalf of the people of Mumbai, no less, for the verbal abuse meted out by the crowd to Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard.

Naming ceremony

Cricketers are not known for their attention to detail

Cricketers are not known for their attention to detail. That particular discipline is left to pedants like us.

25-Feb-2013

So it was something of a surprise when S Sreesanth decided he wanted a second bite at the cherry of the end-of-day media conference. Having taken 4 for 70, he was the designated Indian player to face the hacks and he said all the right things in a gentle inquisition that lasted all of ten minutes or so.

But after leaving his seat and made for the exit, he promptly returned to the microphone-laden table. “I want to make an announcement,” he said. Comments like that lead to wild and excitable speculation. Journalists could see their careers flashing before their eyes. Is this the big one?

“I would like everyone to know that my name is Sreesanth. That’s S-R-E-E-S-A-N-T-H. Thank you.”

Slaying the Beast

If you’re a bat geek (that’s as in willow rather than Bruce Wayne) you might know that Kookaburra’s bat the ‘Beast’ was recently deemed illegal by MCC, the arbiter of cricket’s Laws, because it had a graphite strip down the back of the blade.

Ricky Ponting is the most high-profile user of the ‘Beast’ so he promptly ditched it and has been using one of Kookaburra’s other models in Australia’s Test in Cape Town.

25-Feb-2013

So it was interesting to observe that Owais Shah, England’s sixth debutant in six Tests, used what looked to untrained observers like me the self-same ‘Beast’ while making a fifty in Mumbai before retiring hurt today.

I raised the issue with a colleague who in turn raised it with Angus Fraser, wearer of many hats including member of the ICC’s cricket committee that has jurisdiction over this kind of thing. He was sceptical. He didn’t think ICC had banned it in international cricket. He thought there was a moratorium while Kookaburra batsmen got themselves sorted. To settle the argument, he phoned Dave Richardson, ICC’s cricket manager, who told Fraser that batsmen had been given “a reasonable amount of time” to replace their ‘Beasts’. Shah had come straight to India from an England A tour in West Indies and, it is fair to assume, not expected to play in a Test. So presumably he has not had “reasonable time” to get a new batch of bats in.