India in South Africa for their ODI series

So nearly a week has gone by since I last wrote to you and we’ve moved from Durban to Cape Town.

Now onto Port Elizabeth on our journey around South Africa following the ODI series between SA and India. The match at Durban last Wednesday was a very one sided affair with SA winning the toss and making 248-8 in their 50 overs. Jacques Kallis getting an unbeaten 119 and then the home side bowled India out under lightsf or just 91.
When it gets dark here there is some additional movement around for the bowlers but that can’t be the whole story, there were some fairly indifferent shots played!

I woke the next morning very early because it was the start of ‘The Ashes’. I didn’t set my alarm clock or anything it must have just been an instinct that woke me and when I turned on the telly although Australia had won the toss England weren’t doing too badly and at 209-3 at tea it looked like a good day. Sadly it went downhill from that point onwards and when you lose the first game in a series, even in a 5 match series it’s a big uphill climb to get parity or even better.

Anyway, Thursday was a travelling day to the very picturesque Cape Town. The teams and officials were all booked into the Southern Sun Hotel at Newlands which is 5 minutes walk away from the ground and the feature of this hotel is the staff. I have never been to another hotel where they greet you like a long lost friend not in the sickly false smiley sort of way but in a very genuine caring sort of way, nothing is too much trouble!

The rooms are not the greatest but the staff more than make up for that with their attitude. I had hoped to play some golf whilst I was down there but with cutbacks by Cricket South Africa and a misunderstanding between myself and our 4th umpire nothing materialized so the 3 days before the match were spent without transport either walking between Claremont shopping complex and the hotel or watching re-run upon re-run of sporting action on the hotel TV’s –very boring! And then there was the debacle that was England rugby! Not a good performance and with the cricketers not doing well either it made for a disappointing Saturday night. At least the wine is good here in South Africa!!!!!

Still Sunday didn’t take too long to come around and it was a fascinating game with SA again winning the toss and batting but this time they found themselves in trouble at 74-6 but a magnificent 1st ODI hundred from Justin Kemp got the home side to a respectable 274-7 in their 50 overs. India also got off to a poor start and although Dravid held his end up by getting a good half century not much else came to the party and the tourists ended up being bowled out for 168. On top of that Dravid is ruled out for the rest ofthe ODI’s because he’s broken his finger!

And then it’s off to Port Elizabeth which is a lovely little seaside town on the East coast of the country, where the Garden Route, a beautiful coastal drive between here and Cape Town begins. The teams left early on the 9.30am flight, we travelled at 1pm and it’s nice not to travel with the teams because we tend to get lost in the adulation of the Indian team which they get wherever they go. I do admire them so because you never see any of them get agitated or annoyed when they’re buffeted by the huge support they receive, even the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid. In the evening Billy and I walk down to the Boardwalk shopping, restaurant and casino complex where we did a bit of everything, some less successfully than others!!!!

And today it’s ground inspection and golf at the very testing Humewood Golf Club where in just 3 weeks time they’ll be playing the South African Open – who knows if I have a good round I might just enter…………….NOT!!!!

South Africa take on India

18/11/06 – Saturday and it's a gloriously sunny day.

Today is a day for meetings and inspections, the first inspection was at the Wanderers ground – The Bull Ring. It’s a hugely impressive place to play cricket and immaculately turned out every time I go there. Today was no exception! The game tomorrow is to be played on the same pitch that was used for that incredible match last season between SA and Australia, in these parts they are lovingly calling it the ‘438 game’! Everything is in order except that the South Africans were supposed to be training at the ground today but they never turned up so my umpires didn’t get an opportunity to stand in the nets and get used to bowlers and bounce and light.
England were playing South Africa in a rugby International from Twickenham, so that was a must see event in my book and I’d tried unsuccessfully to get our captains meeting delayed a while because it fell right in the middle of the match. No matter our meeting only lasted 10 minutes at the most so I was able to see England just squeeze past the Boks but it wasn’t a good game!
One of my umpires Brian Jerling was suffering from an ear infection so that was some concern the day before the game but he was on antibiotics and was confident that he would make it for the game, which he did.

19/11/06 - Sunday and game day.

Today is a day/night game and there was huge expectancy as there is at the start of every series. Both these sides hadn’t realised their ambitions in the recent Champions Trophy so both of them would be out to prove a point with the World Cup coming up early next year. The weather didn’t look great but everything was set fair until I started to walk out for the toss and then it started raining – drizzle at first and then proper rain.
We waited and waited until 7 o’clock before it became clear that the rain was not going to abate so the match had to be abandoned. Very frustrating as it always is when weather intervenes but there’s nothing anyone can do to beat the weather!

20/11/06 – Monday, well today is a travel day as our next game is in Durban.

We leave the hotel at 9 o’clock for a 10.55am flight from the newly named OS Tambo International airport in Johannesburg , named after the deceased ANC politician Oliver Tambo. It’s fairly smooth operation as Billy Doctrove and I travel with Brian Jerling who has done this journey many times during his time as an umpire. There is a slight delay on our departure due to slow baggage loading but it’s a smooth flight and we get upgraded to business class so the food is slightly better and the wine also!
Durban is a hot place with tropical weather conditions, which means that at any time a thunder storm can build up out of nothing and produce an almighty downpour. Today was overcast but the forecast was clear of rain. I made contact with some friends of ours, my wife spent some time in Durban during the 2003 World Cup and I’ve been here a few times as well and it’s always nice to get out of the hotel environment which is what happened this evening when I met up with 4 mates at a restaurant called ‘The Butcher Boys’ in Florida Road which is where a lot of good restaurants are in Durban.

21/11/06 – Tuesday and it’s another ground inspection day today.

Kingsmead has been hosting ODI matches here since December 1992 and the first match happened between SA and India. There is a huge Indian community here so the ground will be packed to the rafters so the inspection has to take into account the ground safety and security measures. The pitch has a little green grass on it which might suggest some seam movement but batting under lights also provides assistance for the bowling side so an interesting decision for the captain who wins the toss here tomorrow.
The afternoon is spent on the golf course with a mate of mine whom I played cricket with and against and who is now a first class umpire in the UK , Nigel Cowley. He’s over here coaching and ground supervising for a private school called Clifton college and he’s a tidy golfer playing off 5. Our third player is Ari de Beer, the anti-corruption officer for the ICC. We play at Royal Durban, a nice course that has hosted the SA Open but not for some time. After recent rains and a huge thunderstorm that woke everyone up at 4am this morning the course is saturated and there is a lot of water lying on the fairways but the greens and tees are good and I enjoyed the walk even if I didn’t win the money! The evening was again spent in Florida road at a place called Mo’s noodles a lovely rice and noodles place and for us Brits it’s so cheap. I had a starter and main coarse and shared a bottle of wine which cost me 150 Rand, at todays exchange rate that’s about £11!

Mombasa to Johannesburg in one easy step!

15/11/06 – Leaving day from Mombasa .

I have to go to Nairobi tonight and then tomorrow inspect a couple of venues that Cricket Kenya want to use as International grounds for an upcoming tournament in January. That’s tomorrow but today is all about packing, paying bills and getting ready to play golf! I have a game organised this afternoon at Nyali Golf Club on the North shore of the mainland. It’s the best course in the area and I’m playing with the professional Jimmy Mbongo and one of the Chairman’s friends Vishnu Dhutia who is a very steady player. He and I play as partners against Jimmy and a friend of his – whom for this purpose we’ll call……….Bandit!!!! The guy played off 20 and shot 17 over gross getting 6 pars and a birdie to boot, we had no chance not that I’m a bitter loser or anything but this guy will be playing off single figures within a few weeks! Anyway I enjoyed the course and the company and should I go back to Mombasa I’ll certainly make a ‘B’ line for it again.
I had to rush after the game because my flight to Nairobi was at 9pm and I had to shower, close my case and meet up with my liaison who was getting me to the airport. No problems everything went smoothly and the flight left on time, it’s only 45 minutes to Nairobi and I was soon touching down. I was greeted by Tom Tikolo and taken to the Norfolk Hotel where I was staying for the night. This hotel is the oldest in the city and there are some parts of it that could certainly do with an upgrade but I was only there for one night so that didn’t bother me too much.

16/11/06 – Thursday.

Tom picked me up again to go and inspect these 2 grounds on opposite sides of the city. Both grounds had been inspected by Mike Procter last June but needed further inspecting because he recommended some improvements. Unfortunately not much had been done at either venues so I was unable to pass either of them but my hosts and I did come up with an action plan that may have them up to scratch in a few weeks……..we’ll see!
Time for quick bite to eat then off to the airport for my flight to Johannesburg and the start of the Indian tour! This is where the problems of the day started! I went to the check in desk and got asked for my Yellow Fever certificate which I didn’t have. This was partly my fault because I came to Kenya in 2000 for the Champions Trophy and must have had the jab then but I forgot to bring the certificate this time because I was only told the day I was leaving England that I’d be going on to SA. They refused to let me on the plane but they said I could get a certificate if I crossed the road and went to the first floor of arrivals where they would issue me with a replacement. Unfortunately this was closed! Back to check in for another suggestion, this time they checked me in and I was taken through passport control to another office where an in-house doctor would help me out. This she did but only after she’d given me a half hour lecture about the importance of carrying important documents and some currency had changed hands!!!! Well, this is Africa !!!
Time to board the plane and no sooner had we all done that than the captain came on the internal radio and told us we had to wait because a VIP was due to land soon! This VIP was the President of Kenya and it took 40 minutes for his plane to land, taxi into the terminal with his military escort and permission for us to be given the go ahead. There could be no more problems now surely? The flight took 10 minutes short of 4 hours and it all went smoothly. I did some work on my computer until the battery died and South African Airways looked after us very well. Now back at Nairobi airport I got chatting to a lady who was looking concerned for her friend because the authorities had taken her away from the boarding gate because she didn’t have 2 clean pages in her passport for the South African authorities to put their stamp in. 2 clean pages ……why? Anyway I saw her on the plane and sure enough her friend had not been allowed to board!
I hadn’t bothered to check my passport but I do a lot of travelling and sure enough when I got to passport control they picked up that I didn’t have 2 clean pages either. I had 4 or 5 pages with only one small stamp in one corner but they insisted they had to have 2 clean pages. OK send me home, I thought, this had been a bad day and I wasn’t going to argue any more. The guy went away to see what he could do and came back after 5 minutes to say he would stamp the passport but that I’d have to get a new one for future trips to SA. I’d made it through the most troublesome travel day I think I’d ever had! I was met on the other side of customs my Mike Gajjar from Cricket South Africa who took me to the Grayston Southern Sun Hotel in Sandton where I would be staying for my time in Jo’burg.

17/11/06 – Nothing much to do today as I’m the only official in town at the moment. My 2 local guys were involved with an Indian warm-up game last night and wouldn’t be booking in until the afternoon and Billy Doctrove, my Elite Umpire, wasn’t due to fly in until 11am so he would be catching up with some sleep for the rest of the day. I needed some shorts so a quick trip into the Sandton Shopping Centre was in order. This is one of the main shopping centres in Jo’burg it is also a little bit more expensive than the others because of the close proximity of all the major hotels in Sandton but it does have everything and as we are staying fairly close to the centre it seemed the obvious place to visit.

So what about the Ashes then?

Ok so an England tour to Australia hasn't started too well! There's nothing new in that, I recall an England side back in 1986 who were told they couldn't bat, couldn't bowl and couldn't field, they didn't do too badly, did they?

I was disappointed in the news that Marcus Trescothick had to go home because of a recurrence of his stress related illness, he is a big loss to the touring party and I'm sure we all wish him well with his recovery. He has experience (74 Test matches) technique and oodles of ability to see off the new ball and that, to me, is the key to success against the Aussies. Getting 20 wickets is important to win matches in any country but in Australia if you don't get enough runs on the board then you won't be able to get the 20 wickets required to win games and the opening batsmen are key to getting enough runs. With fairly unresponsive pitches you need to see off the new ball without losing wickets and it's an opening batsmens job to make sure he sees off the shine and hardness of the ball so that the middle order can pile on the runs and build a big enough total for the bowlers to bowl at.

With Marcus now gone and Ed Joyce announced as his replacement it only leaves one recognised opening batsman in the party and that's Andrew Strauss. I imagine that Ian Bell or Alistair Cook will be asked to assume the responsibility of opening the innings and Bell didn't have a great run against the Aussies last time, Cook is only just beginning his Test career.

I can assure you that the Aussies will have taken note of that fact and be focusing their attention on getting into whoever is Strauss' opening partner. Should they come off, like Bill Athey and I did in '86/'87 then I think England have a great chance of retaining The Ashes and remember they only have to draw to do that!

Chris

Kenya complete whitewash of Bermuda

14/11/06 – All parties woke up this morning feeling much better than the day before, just as well as it’s another game day today, the last of the 3! Sunshine greeted as we went for a light breakfast and it turned out to be another hot one – all 3 days have reached 32 degrees centigrade and the humidity is up around the 75%, not easy to perform whether you are an official or player. Kenya won the toss and batted with Steve Tikolo making a superb 100 in their total of 305 for 8. Bermuda in reply made a good fist of it reaching 206-6 with vice-captain Dean Minors getting a very good fifty unfortunately during the innings Maurice Ouma the wicket keeper was taken off after a ball from Steve Tikolo reared up awkwardly and struck him on the forehead, he was alright though after a while just another battle scar!!!! There was an official function in the evening put on by the Kenyan Cricket Association which was a nice way to end our stay in Mombasa and Kenya

13/11/06 – The lack of sleep and upset stomach meant that I had to pull out of the safari trip we had planned for today. I was disappointed as it’s always nice to get out and about and see some of the country I visit but the last thing I wanted was to be bouncing around on unmade roads with out a toilet close at hand so I spent the day not eating just drinking lots of fluids and trying to flush the bug out of my system. As it turned out it was a good trip to miss as both umpires told me they only saw 2 elephants and a few buck and the journey over the bumps was bone crushing.

12/11/2006 – Although back to back matches have been outlawed by Test playing countries as they regard it as too difficult for players to perform on consecutive days it is still the practice for Associate countries and both sides and officials have to start game 2 in this 3 match series today. Rain greeted us as we pulled back the curtains and the rain continued to pour for a good 2 hours but the beauty of playing cricket in Africa is that when the sun comes out it really comes out and before you know it the puddles on the outfield had evaporated and play was beginning at 11.30am with the game reduced to a 42 over game. Unfortunately Tony Hill my New Zealand umpire was not feeling too well having eaten something that hadn’t agreed with him the night before but he agreed to start the match. He didn’t last long though as after 5 overs he signalled that he was going to come off at the conclusion of his over. He didn’t make that either because as he was walking off the field he vomited not once, not twice but three times! Why is it that when someone in the sporting world suffers ignominy people always laugh at them! Tony was really struggling but he was brought off and the medics took a look at him and gave him some medication. When I went down to see him at the first drinks break he could see the funny side of what happened but he was still not well so he went back to the hotel to recuperate. Local umpire Gulam Kutub came on which must have been a very exciting time for him and he didn’t let anyone down making some very good decisions.
The game itself was won by Kenya who after losing the toss restricted Bermuda to 183 with Thomas Odoyo bowling his 9 overs with figures of 4 for 25, they then proceeded to knock off the runs for the loss of 3 wickets, Steve Tikolo and Tanmay Mishra both scoring 50’s, this of course gives the home side an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
With Tony Hill still not well Buddhi Pradhan my Nepalese umpire and I went out for a meal with the Kenyan Chairman Samir Inamdar. He took us to a beautiful fish restaurant on the north shore called Tamarind. It was spectacular, perched as it was just on the cliff over looking the sea and the food was excellent as well. We got back to the hotel at about 11.00pm and retired to bed but I didn’t get much sleep as I had a bad case of food poisoning and was up most of the night visiting the toilet. I can’t think the poisoning had come from the restaurant that night because it was so soon after the evening had finished that I fell ill but you never know!


11/11/2006 – Remembrance day back in the UK for all those who fought and died for us in wars around the World. It is a very sombre day for all who remember them! But whilst that was going on at home I am out in Kenya and it’s the first official ODI game between Kenya and Bermuda and the very picturesque Mombasa Sports ground. Kenya win the toss and decide to bat first on a slow and low pitch that, at the toss only looked as though it was going to get lower and slower! It was a struggle to get runs initially because of the pitch but also some tight Bermudan bowling and fielding. But some good batting by David Obuya and captain Steve Tikolo plus some late order hitting from Odhiambo and Ongondo saw the home side to a decent 224-7 in their 50 overs. The overrate was good by the Bermudans so we had a full 45 minutes for lunch and then it was the Bermudans turn to bat, unfortunately they weren’t able to match the discipline they showed in the field when some poor shot selection saw them lose wickets on a regular basis. Hiren Varaiya a 19 year old left arm spinner took 3 for 27 during his 10 over spell and duely won the man of the match award as the home side came out on top by 79 runs.
After finishing off the paperwork I have to do at the end of each match the members in the bar downstairs started to watch the England v Argentina rugby match that was being shown live over here on SuperSport television. I wish they hadn’t have been because England played very badly, nearly as badly as England cricket had played the previous day against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI. It wasn’t pretty watching as England were well beaten 18 – 25 and the locals weren’t shy in letting me know how well the Argentineans were doing! Not a good end to a very nice day but I did have a few beers in the bar to soften the blow!

Kenya and Bermuda Lock Horns in Mombasa

8/11/06 - Well after a busy and sometimes traumatic week in cricket it’s back to basics for me with a trip to Mombasa on the Kenyan coast for an ODI series between Kenya and Bermuda .

Australia quite rightly won the Champions Trophy after a slow start where they lost to the Windies in the group stage they came back to give them a good hiding, as they did most sides in the Final. The Darrell Hair situation is a disappointing one for cricket as well and I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this story as Darrell is a very disappointed and angry man!

Anyway back to Kenya, I have to say it was a very uneventful flight I left the UK at 8.30pm which was a great time to leave as no sooner were we in the air, I had a quick bite to eat and then I was settling down for a good sleep during the 6 and a half hour flight to Dubai. Another 6 hour leg to Nairobi then a 3 hour wait for a connecting flight at Nairobi domestic terminal before an hours flight to Mombasa , our base for the ODI’s against Bermuda . It was going dark on our flight down so I didn’t get to see too much of the land below but it was vast and very desolate.

9/11/06 - The hotel, the Royal Court is right in the middle of Mombasa which for those of you who don’t know was an island in the mouth of a river with only one bridge to the North connecting it to the mainland that is until recently when a viaduct was constructed to accommodate the traffic from the Airport and the docks. The hotel is clean but basic and I’ve had plenty of time to explore its inner workings because it has rained for most of the day today and the forecast is not good for the rest of the week and into next week as well.

10/11/06 - Fortunately, no-one believes forecasters because I wake up this morning and the sun is beating down. It’s pre-match day and a ground inspection and captains meeting have to take place. The teams came in late last night after delays so the captains meeting is scheduled for 5.30pm but the more interesting duty is to go and have a look at the ground and see how much damage the rain has inflicted on the playing area. To our surprise there is very little sign that rain ahs been pouring for the last week. The groundstaff have done a magnificent job, there is a small area on one of the pitches that is a little bit damp but the rest of the playing area is ready and able to play.

The evening prior to the match is spent in the company of some of our hosts at the Gymkhana Club in town where we sampled some of the local curries and one or two of the Tusker beers.
A very convivial evening.