Weary England fly in face of logic (7 April 1999)

7 April 1999

Weary England fly in face of logic

Martin Johnson in Sharjah

England's warm-up mission for the World Cup moved from Lahore to Sharjah yesterday, where their presence in a triangular floodlit tournament - they meet Pakistan in the opening game later today - is intended to ensure that they are better prepared for the big one than they have been in the past. Unfortunately, the fact that they got here looking as though they had travelled by camel train also suggests that their employers are willing to throw everything into winning the World Cup, bar money.

The England and Wales Cricket Board have had more success finding sponsors for this trip than the World Cup itself, although the players are harbouring mixed feelings about the deal to get flown around by the Emirates airline after a trip that should have taken 90 minutes lasted the thick end of 11 hours.

Instead of taking one of the direct flights from Lahore to Dubai, the players were contractually obliged to get to Karachi on a PIA flight to pick up a sponsored connection to the United Arab Emirates. And a runway closure there meant that instead of arriving at their Dubai hotel in mid-afternoon in time for a refreshing pot of tea, they finally staggered to the check-in desk at half past one in the morning.

The players, who still have not been given details of their World Cup contracts - other than hearing that they will not get nearly as much money as the ECB originally suggested they would - have therefore been spending a fair amount of their bonding time exchanging gripes and grumbles.

England have also come away without their fitness trainer, Dean Riddle - which probably has less to do with money than the fact that a programme of squat thrusts in 40-degree heat is not a good idea - although the absence of an official scorer is certainly cash-related. England's three one-day scorecards in Pakistan are about to arrive in the Wisden office on the back of a fag packet.

However, whether or not the ECB are unwilling to dig too deeply into their pockets - and there is no doubt that financial projections for the World Cup are a long way short of original expectations - this trip remains a useful exercise. More so in building team spirit than playing preparation, given that England's 15 have been picked with seaming pitches in mind. Keeping the dust out of your eyes and dehydration at bay are not the kind of problems one would normally associate with Canterbury and Nottingham in May.

The one fresh member of England's party yesterday was Nasser Hussain, whose own Emirates flight came direct from Gatwick. Hussain was chosen as a replacement for Michael Atherton, apparently on a split decision, and Atherton himself damned Hussain with faint praise at the weekend when he said that Hussain's "electrifying" fielding must have been the deciding factor given that there were "plenty of better one-day players around".

Hussain himself acknowledged that the work he had put in on his technique with Graham Gooch had, ironically, turned him from someone once thought a better one-day batsman into more of a Test specialist. A more orthodox style has made him easier for bowlers to contain in the one-day stuff.

Pakistan will present tough first-up opposition today (England play both them and India twice in the round-robin stages) as they are fresh from morale-lifting victories in both Tests and one-dayers against their deadly rivals in India. On a brighter note, however, England have only ever played in two Sharjah tournaments, and won them both.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)