The Australians take the spoils in Malaysia

Sunday 25th and it’s the day of the final.

It’s also travel day because if the game goes the distance Asad, Mark, Marks wife Sarah and I will have to leave the ground and go straight to the airport to catch our flight to Dubai.
The morning was spent packing, paying bills and saying goodbyes to people in the hotel who had looked after us extremely well. An extra vehicle had been arranged to take our bags to the ground and wait the outcome of the game. Australia had won every toss during this tournament, the West Indies hadn’t won any, if I was a betting man I’d have put heaps on the Windies winning this one today. But I’d have lost because Ricky Ponting won the toss again for the 5th time in a row and again decided to bat first. It was tough going early on as the Windies bowled a good line and length and had a little bit of luck with one or two indifferent bounces – well it was the 5th game that had been played on this pitch and it was showing signs of wear. Again the Aussie middle order saved their side from a low score. Brett Lee got things off to a flying start with Gayle going first ball LBW and wickets continued to tumble- in fact it was only Sarwan and Smith who managed any respectable scores both ending up with 30’s- but the Windies were skittled for just 113, making the Aussies winners by 127 runs and DLF Cup Champions.
It had been a very well organised event. There were one or two hiccups which there are in any event but on the whole it was great as a venue. The teams played hard but fair and it was good practice for all teams in the lead up to the Champions Trophy. The Malaysian people didn’t embrace it as much as the organisers had hoped but KL is certainly growing in terms of cricket development so it must be encouraged with events such as this.
Because the match finished early there was no immediate dash to the airport required which allowed us to say our goodbyes and have a drink with everyone which was a nice way to wind down after the event. KL is certainly a place I would recommend going to and I hope I get the opportunity to go back at some stage in the not too distant future.
That’s it for now, see you the next time.

Saturday 24th

Our last free day before flying home. All the officials set off for the local shopping area – Times Square – and hunted for some bargains. KL does have a large variety of shopping to do. Electrical goods are always good value, we found a HP laptop that was on sale for 2500 Ringgits which is about £350, it was brand new and probably very good but with a lot of counterfeit goods around in Asia it was never easy to tell. Clothing was cheap as was food and shoes, in fact I ended up buying a pair of slip-on shoes that I didn’t really want but I couldn’t really resist. In the afternoon I’d organised some tickets for the guys to go upto the 42nd floor of the Twin Petronas Towers, it’s called the ‘bridge walk’ because there is a bridge that joins both towers together and the public are allowed to get up there for free and view the amazing scenery from a terrific vantage point. Unfortunately when we got onto the bridge the heavens decided to open and our view was cut to virtually nothing but it’s still worth the visit.

Friday 23rd

The penultimate game and whoever won it would play West Indies in the final on Sunday. The Aussies were favourites but the Indians had got out of jail against the Windies 2 days ago so they would no doubt come out fighting. Aussie won the toss and batted again (that’s the 4th time in a row that Ponting has won the toss) but they didn’t start very well. Hayden got 50 at the top of the order but it was left to Symonds and Hussey to give some respectability to the total by getting some runs towards the end of the innings. 214 was eminently gettable but there was controversy ahead as Tendulkar was given out in the 2nd over when the ball came off his shoulder. Mark Benson was the umpire and no sooner had he made the decision than he realised it was the wrong one. He walked over to his colleague at square leg Asad Rauf and told him that he was changing his decision he called Tendulkar back and then proceeded to explain his decision the Ponting who, although unhappy about it, realised that the right decision had eventually been reached. This was a very brave bit of umpiring by Mark, I know a lot of guys who would have just stuck to their decision even though it was wrong but Mark knew he’d made a mistake and went about rectifying it. He received very good comments from all concerned but it didn’t help Tendulkar because 2 overs later he was out caught at cover point and India’s man in form was back in pavilion. They kept losing wickets but a partnership between Dhoni and the recently recalled Dinesh Mongia looked as though it could take India home and into the final. Never underestimate the Aussies though and even though India only required 2 and ½ runs per over to win they kept the pressure on and the Indians cracked. It can be a problem for a lot of sides – winning against the Aussies – and it certainly looked as though the Indians lacked the confidence to get over the winning line even though they were within touching distance. Australia eventually won by 18 runs and they made it into the final to play the Windies on Sunday.

Thursday 22nd

Our last golfing day, the foursome of Dev, Greig, Rhodes and Broad had been reunited. We were due to play against 4 Aussies who were out in KL redesigning some of the courses and one of the courses they were working on, the KL Golf and Country Club, was the course we were invited to play on today. The Aussies had to work though so it was just left to our fourball to go off and enjoy the course. Dev and Rhodes played Broad and Greig and it was another very good contest. I think we’d all worked out each others games by now and whoever invented the golfing handicap did a fantastic job because although Dev and Rhodes won the front nine convincingly by 4 shots Broad and Greig came back on the back nine to require a win on the last hole to square the match. It was a long par 5 with the clubhouse some 500 metres away in the distance. Rhodes and Greig hit their tee shots into one of the many bunkers to the left of the fairway. Dev hit a massive drive but went left into the trees and I hit a shortish drive but landed in the fairway. Our second shots got us within chipping distance of the green and this is where matches are won and lost. Kapil Dev had rattled a few trees and eventually picked up. John Rhodes had blocked his third right of the green and had left himself with a tricky chip over a bunker. Tony was on the green some 40 feet away with a rollercoaster of a putt and I had flown just over the flag with a slick down hill putt about 12 feet in length. John had fluffed his chip and had taken 2 to get out of the bunker. Tony’s first putt ended up some 8 feet away and he missed the following putt, I had trickled my 12 foot putt some 4 feet past the hole but I now had an uphill putt which safely found the bottom of the cup. Winners of the back nine and a half in the match. I’d enjoyed my adventures on the courses over here and I’d enjoyed the friendship that the four of us had made because that’s what golf is all about, getting out having a bit of exercise and a good yarn along the way. If money changes hands then so be it but it’s only loose change so no-one loses a great deal.

Wed 20th

This time the Indians had to win against the West Indies to have any chance of going through to the final. We were back on the number 2 pitch again which had been successfully repaired by the groundstaff after a channel had been found on a length at the Southern end of the ground. They had thoroughly soaked the area and drilled holes in the pitch and then lifted and filled those holes so as to raise the surface to make it as flat as possible. They had done a great job but there was still a slight indentation which we all hoped wouldn’t make too much of an impact. India won the toss and decided to bat first but they didn’t make a very good job of it. Sachin got another fifty but there weren’t too many other significant contributions so the West Indies had a great chance of shutting India out of the competition. For some reason though the West Indians decided to re-arrange their batting order opening with Chanderpaul and Morton instead of Gayle. They allowed the Indians to make early inroads into their batting and if you allow a side to get on top in this form of the game they very rarely let go and this was the case in this match. Lara came in at number 9 and the Windies still had a chance of winning but they relied very heavily on Lara. He didn’t disappoint but unfortunately the rest of the side couldn’t stay with him so although they were only chasing 163 to win they got bowled out for 146 and India had given themselves a chance of making the final.

Tuesday 19th

Another golfing day for three of the foursome. Tony Greig, John Rhodes and myself played with a chap called Devin Raif at the beautiful Kota Permai Golf and Country Club some 20 minutes away from the hotel. It was another steamy day but buggies had been arranged so it was a little less arduous than it might have been but the course was tough. They had played the Malaysian Open there a few months previously and the fairways were undulating and the greens were slick and sloping so all in all it was a challenge. Tony and John played Devin and I and it turned out to be a great game with a putt on the last by me to half the match and end honours even.

Malaysian Tri-Series hots up!

Wednesday 13th,
Day off today but there was no time for rest, Tony Greig, Kapil Dev, John Rhodes (ICC anti-corruption officer) and me had arranged a game of golf. We played at the Royal Selangor Golf Club which although they are doing some serious repair work to 18 holes of the course there was still 18 to play and they were in terrific condition. This course is not far away from the Traders hotel where we are staying and is open to non-members. It was hot and humid with some classic Malaysian rain showers during the round but they have shelters all the way round the course so we didn’t get too wet. Kapil is a lovely player off a 3 handicap, Tony and John play off 15 and I played off my Wollaton Park handicap of 8. Unfortunately, John and I lost to Kapil and Tony on the last hole.

Thursday 14th,
India were playing their first game of the series against the West Indies . India won the toss and decided to bat. This gave the great man Sachin the opportunity to bat on his return from the serious shoulder injury. It didn’t seem as though he’d been away as he blasted the WI bowling attack all over the Kinrara Oval for a magnificent 140. India looked in great shape to win the game as the second innings started but WI made a good start to their innings and at 20 overs were 140 odd for 2 when rain came. Now 20 overs constitutes a game in ODI cricket and the rain started exactly on 20 overs and it didn’t stop, under the Duckworth/ Lewis method WI won by 29 runs. It’s always a difficult way to end a game but I was warned that this is the monsoon season so it wasn’t unexpected. One win each for the Windies and the Aussies!
Today is ‘Chinese air force day’ (Fly day) and it’s another day of golf but this golf game is different because we’re playing with royalty! We have been invited to play at Saujana Golf Club by the Prince of this region Yang Amat Mulia Tunku Tan Sri Imran Ibni Tuanku Ja’afar , thankfully known as Tunku Imran or Pete to his golfing pals! There are 8 of us, a four-ball that has been organised by the prince and our usual suspects. Kapil played in the four-ball with the Prince so Devin Nair -who works for the McGirvan Media group- played with Tony, John and myself. It was a beautiful course (fact they’d played the European Tour Master tournament there some months earlier so you can imagine what it was like). The course name is Malay for big Cobra and there was a message on the 8th tee not to go into the hazard on the 8th and 9th hole because a big Cobra had been spotted earlier in the day. Needless to say we all aimed well away from trouble!!!! John and I got our revenge on Tony and it all ended with all of us sharing a beer in the 19th!

Saturday 16th,
India had to play Australia. The crowds had been disappointing for the first 2 matches but for this game it was a sell-out. Australia won the toss and as with all the other games they decided to bat first but it didn’t all got to plan as Australia could only muster 244. Ponting and Katich made fifties but it was a tough slog with some good bowling, particularly from Harbhajan Singh and Verinder Sehwag who both found some turn in this pitch. It rained just before the lunch break which caused a very humorous scene. There were 7 balls remaining of the Aussie innings and the TV crew thought that we would take lunch immediately and finish the 7 balls afterwards. In fact no sooner had the rain started when it stopped so the umpires decided to go straight back out again and finish the innings before lunch. We informed the TV director who then informed us that he had no cameramen at their stations because they were all in lunch stuffing their faces. The funny sight came when we saw 3 cameramen running to their positions, one of whom was still carrying his lunch!

The innings only lasted 2 balls before McGrath was out; I hope they didn’t get indigestion from having to balk their lunch too quickly! Rain was to play a big part in this match because no sooner had the Indian innings started than it rained again, forcing the players off the field. They came back a little later with a reduced target in 29 overs. This meant that they had to play some shots and this played nicely into Mitchell Johnsons’ hands as the left-armer got the ball in the right areas and picked up 4 wickets for virtually nothing to have the Indians reeling at 35-5. But the rain started again and the game was washed out. This no result left the Indians at the bottom of the table at the half way stage. Australia were top and the Windies just behind.
Sunday was a rest day. No golf either, although I had been asked to go to a local radio station -Radio 4- and take part in a Sports Talk programme. There were certain parameters to the interview, I would be able to talk about the Darrell Hair incident at the Oval, I wouldn’t talk about ball tampering and I wouldn’t talk about bowling actions. The discussion went well, we talked about my role as a referee, some of the more difficult situation I have to deal with and about this series. Tony got on his high horse about the prices of tickets for this series which I think he was right to raise. If the organizers are trying to attract people to support the game in this part of the world then the price of tickets has got to be set at a level which everyone can afford. $50 US is too expensive for a lot of people in these parts! Anyway the interview over it was back to the hotel. During our journey back I got a phone call from the organiser of the event who asked me to pop into his room when I got back to the hotel because he had something to discuss with me. Intrigued I went straight up to his room and he told me that there were plans to possibly change the starting times of the games in an effort to beat the weather and get more cricket. This was motivated by TV and Indian audiences, both Indian matches had been affected by the rain. There were 3 options:
1) To leave things as they were and hope the rain doesn’t fall
2) To move all the remaining matches to day games and start them at 10am in the hope that the game would be over before the rain comes in the afternoon.
3) Start each game at 1.30pm instead of 2.30pm. This would allow an extra hour should there be any rain.
After some discussion it was decided to go with idea number three but it still had to be passed by the teams. Brendan McClements -the Tournament Director- was left in charge of phoning the managers and running it passed them. This was done and everything was agreed. For the rest of the afternoon I met up with the umpires who were going shopping and seeing some of the sights of Kuala Lumpur . KL does have some wonderful shops and is a little bit cheaper than the shops back home, it was just great to see so many people out enjoying themselves on a Sunday, I am a great people watcher! I bought some shoes and a couple of DVD’s but was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. (don’t tell my wife!)

Monday and another game day played under these slightly different rules. We were greeted by a fantastic day, not a cloud in the sky and no sign of any rain anywhere, typical! It was a very exciting game today with Australia playing West Indies and as per usual Australia won the toss and decided to bat. They got into trouble losing early wickets but Hayden and Hussey set West Indies a stiff target of 273 to win in their 50 overs. The Windies got off to a slow start but when Lara got together with Gayle they got on top of the Aussies and it looked like there could only be one winner. Then the Windies had a middle order wobble losing Gayle and Lara, the latter being caught off the back of the bat whilst going for a hook! But Bravo saw them home with some controlled stroke play and the odd huge hit. This result put the cat amongst the pigeons as far as the Indians were concerned because the Windies had now won 2 games and were guaranteed a place in the final which meant the Indians had to win both their remaining games against West Indies and Australia to have any chance of getting into the final themselves. Very interesting!!!

The International Triangular Series- Kuala Lumpur

Off we go again!
This time I’m off to Kuala Lumpur to officiate in the tri-series between India, Australia and the West Indies.

I board the Emirates flight from Birmingham which is relatively uneventful until we get close to Dubai . I have had some of their lovely food on the plane, watched Mission Impossible 3 with Tom Cruise which was OK and were getting ready to land in Dubai when we were told that there would be a diversion due to. We diverted to Abu Dhabi which was only about 20 minutes flying time away from Dubai where there was no fog and glorious sunshine.
1 hour 30 minutes later we finally got the all clear to fly to Dubai, we landed, went through security and had about an hours wait in the lounge before boarding a flight to Bangkok and then onto Kuala Lumpur. I was meant to meet up with Mark Benson -the elite panel umpire from England- whilst in Dubai but there was no sign of him so I assumed that he’d got caught up in the fog problem and missed the connection to Bangkok. Anyway I couldn’t worry about that as I had a plane to catch and a tournament to attend.

The flight to Bangkok was 6 hours but I was told, just after we took off that I would miss my connecting flight with Malaysian Airlines when we get to Bangkok because we are running 2 hours behind schedule. There was nothing I could do until I got to Bangkok so I wasn’t going to worry. I sat next to a lovely Australian couple who were just returning home after a safari holiday in Africa. They were cricket fans and were very interested in my trip to Malaysia and obviously very interested in the upcoming Ashes series, as most people in the cricket world are!
I watched a film called End Game which starred Cuba Gooding Jnr. It was a very good a thriller. That filled 90 minutes and before you knew it we were landing in Bangkok.
I was greeted by an Emirates representative who confirmed that I had missed my connecting flight and that they were going to put me up for the night in a local hotel. The next flight to KL was not until 12pm the next day. Oh dear I thought, I was already running late because of staying in Nottingham to watch my son, Stuart play for England at Trent Bridge and now I had a further delay which meant I wasn’t going to arrive in KL until late afternoon the day before the 1st match! I informed the ICC of the delay and also the tournament director in KL, there wasn’t much more I could do until I reached KL. The next problem I had was that Emirates had somehow managed to leave my golf clubs back in Dubai and again there wasn’t another flight coming in to Bangkok until after I’d left to go to KL the next day so I had to fill in the obligatory left luggage form giving a description of what the bag looked like and then left the airport for the Amari Airport Hotel.

I managed to get a reasonable nights sleep and had a hearty breakfast in the bustling hotel and no sooner had I finished eating than it was time to head off to the airport for my flight to KL. The flight left exactly on time which was a first - there is a golf course right in the middle of the 2 busy runways of Bangkok International Airport . There were 4 holes going out and 4 holes coming back with the rest of the course lying right underneath the flight path. I would need earplugs to play that course, but very unique I suspect!
KL is the most beautiful place, so clean and tidy but hot and we are holding this tournament right in the middle of the monsoon season. We are staying in a beautiful hotel which has only been open for 2 months called the Traders Hotel right in the centre in KL. The famous Twin Towers are just outside my bedroom window and they are gloriously lit every night. There is a huge shopping mall just 10 minutes walk away and it’s not only got shops but loads of restaurants as well. I met up with all three of my umpires Asad Rauf from Pakistan, Tony Hill from New Zealand and Mark Benson who had missed the flight in Dubai. I managed to get a reasonable night sleep which was needed with a game coming up the next day.

12th September- game day.
Australia were playing the West Indies in the tournament opener. I went to the ground early to check on the facilities and aside from one or two teething problems all looked well for a good game. The teams arrived at 12.30pm for a 2.30pm start. Australia won the toss and elected to bat. I won’t go into too much detail except to say that West Indies were cruising the game until they had a late order collapse of 7 wickets for about 27 runs, something they won’t be proud! But as the game finished and Australia won my day was just beginning!

Ricky Ponting was charged with ‘dissent at an umpire’s decision’. Now the game finished at 10pm, by the time I’d written out the charge sheets and informed the player and his manager it was 10.45pm. The meeting was held at 11pm and lasted about half an hour, and then there was all the paperwork that needed to be done and the emails to be sent and in some cases re-sent. All in all I didn’t get to bed much before 1.30am and I was ready for sleep at that time but could I switch off……..!