India a daunting place for baptisms
In an anecdote-laden piece in the Observer, Frank Keating looks back England's tours to India and the difficulties inexperienced captains faced
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
In an anecdote-laden piece in the Observer, Frank Keating looks back England's tours to India and the difficulties inexperienced captains faced.
The second of those tours, led by Mike Smith in 1963-64, had a particularly dire sick list and on the eve of the second Test at Bombay the manager David Clark told young pressman Henry Blofeld (recent Cambridge University bat on his first foreign trip for the Guardian) to be prepared to pad up for England in the morning. "I'm ready," said Henry, "but if I pass 50 I don't expect to be dropped for the next Test." In the event, Micky Stewart staggered from his sickbed to join the side.