Uzbekistan: Tashkent - cricket's Central Asian oasis

Were Shane Warne to ever join Uzbekistan's Indian expatriates for their usual abbreviated game each Sunday, it is likely the 6-16 employees of Core Pharmsanoat, an Indo-Uzbeki health care company, would be spared from his most lethal deliveries.

Although renowned for competitiveness, the legendary leg spinner's famous culinary inclinations would probably mean he would be happy to allow one of the Tashkent's social cricketers to take the weekly Man of the Match award, dinner for two at the local Ragu's Indian restaurant.

He might even bring along his equally famous baked beans to the luncheon interval, which along with the match itself provides quite a social outing for Tashkent's Indian community, with free beer, sandwiches and Indian food laid on.

The on field action consists of two innings a side of 10 overs each using a tennis ball on a rectangular football field at the Chilanzar Sports Stadium converted into an oval shape thanks to the resident groundsman using flags and a chalk line.

Still, the boundaries would delight Warne's Australian team-mate Adam Gilchrist, with the straight boundary shorter than the squarer ones, although spectators would need to be vigilant as there are no sight screens. The matting wicket is nornally watered before the game.

The Indians have been playing 'religiously' as Bharat Shah, the president of Core Pharmasanoat describes it each Sunday and public holiday since 1997 when Mr Shah arrived with his family in his role with the joint venture and began looking for something to do on the weekends.

In 1999 what has to become the main event during the Uzbeki cricket season (which runs from March to Noivember until snow and rain intrude) was first held when a team from the Birtish Embassy met a so-called 'Commonwealth XI' comprisng players from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

The English won that day by five wickets, but have lost emphatically to Indian XIs the past two years. The 2001 version is expected to be played sometime this month. (Brief match descriptions of past matches are below).

Despite the Englishmen's involvement in the annual match, that is about their only cricket outing for the year, with Mr Shah's workmates and their friends Uzbekistan's only regular cricketers.

Mr Shah's absence from his native Hyderabad has not dimmed this enthusiasm for cricket which extends back to childhood days spent watching Ajit Wadekhar's 1971 team deflate the West Indies and England.

He is keen to play a prominent role in establishing cricket in his 'adopted' country of 2.5 million people, where football, tennis, chess, boxing and grecoroman wrestling are prominent in the Uzbeki sports culture.

Match reports from Mr. Shah:

In 1998: we first had the cricket match between an English XI and what we called a ' Commonwealth XI'. The initiative was taken by the British Embassy in close contact with the Indian Embassy.Keith Allan from the British Embassy was good enough to arrange the equipment and also reserve the ground. It was a 30 overs a side affair, which the English XI won by five wickets with just nine deliveries to spare. Praveen Narayan, who opened the innings for 'India' and scored 38 runs, besides taking one wicket and one catch in the deep, was named the 'Man of the Match' despite being on the losing side.

In 1999 there was the return match and this time it was the English XI against a pure Indian XI. I had the good fortune to lead the Indian team, while Keith Allan was once again at the helm of the English team. We lost the toss and were put in to bat. We made 111/9 in our 30 overs, against some very tight and steady bowling on a helpful wicket where the ball tended to keep a little low. Shreshth Bhatia, my colleague in the joint venture made 24 with four fours, while Satwinder Singn made 18 with a six and two fours. I was unbeaten at the end with 17 including one four.

In reply our fast bowlers just uprooted the English batting lineup, and they were 18/7 after just 7 overs. Satwinder Singh was unplayable and scalped four crucial wickets, three of them clean bowled. We took it a bit easy thereafter, but the English team were still all out for just 45 in their 29th over. This gave the Indian team a thumping victory in a low scoring match by 66 runs, and levelled the score at 1-1. Satwinder Singh was 'Man of the Match' for his remarkable all round performance.

In 2000 the Indian XI was a still stronger side, and gave the English XI no chance at all. The Indian XI were asked to bat first after losing the toss. They lost a wicket in their second over, but the entire batting clicked to such an extent that the innings closed at 202-3 in 30 overs. Sachin and Jayant hit fluent half centuries, while Praveen and Shreshth ensured the acceleration in the end. The English bowling looked tired and flagged out after half the innings was over, and the scoring rate never dipped below five runs an over throughout.

The English XI contained two players of Indian origin - Jitendra Patel who actually has a British passport and Ram who is a cricketer in his own right from Hyderabad in india. There were also three league cricketers. However Satwinder Singh again had the English team on a hop and picked up three quick wickets. There was some defiance in the middle order, but a sustained spell of bowling from Shreshth Bhatia ensured the English team did not reach three figures. This was an even more thumping victory by 119 runs. Jayant Bhattacharya, who kept wickets brillantly against the Indian quicks, and also hit five towering sixes in his 56 was the Man of the Match.