World Cup Diary
A different ball game
Alan Lewis , former Ireland cricketer and now a Rugby Union referee, was at the Ireland training session before their game against Australia in Dublin last year
Sidharth Monga
25-Feb-2013
Alan Lewis, former Ireland cricketer and now a Rugby Union referee, was at the Ireland training session before their game against Australia in Dublin last year. He wasn’t there to impart tips or share experiences with his younger countrymen, No sir, there was more serious business at hand. Two groups of quarrelling, argumentative Irish national cricketers didn’t trust their support staff to do a good job officiating, so they got Lewis to stand in a game. A game of rugby. That’s how serious and competitive these games before nets sessions and before matches are.
Of course they play the milder version, touch rugby (they wouldn’t want to get injured through proper tackles), but the games are every bit as competitive as their cricket in international matches is. “If you lose, the boys will take it out on you for the rest of the day, or the next couple of days,” says Niall O’Brien. “If you win, which we are doing at the moment in the Green team, I am letting the Blue team know, and giving them plenty of stick.”
O’Brien should know, for he was on the losing side in the 2007 World Cup. Back then the teams were not unimaginatively named Green and Blue. The divide ran deeper. The Oldies played the Youngies, and O’Brien’s Youngies lost. Trent Johnston, Boyd Rankin’s new-ball partner, would never let him hear the last of it. Rankin, though, played rugby at school, and although he didn’t get a chance to exact revenge on this trip because of the new teams, he is at least on the winning Green side on this tour.
Full postPassionate fans, charities and a round of golf
At our training sessions there have been hundreds of fans crushing each other just in the hope of getting a glimpse of us
John Mooney
25-Feb-2013
John Mooney: "At our training sessions there have been hundreds of fans crushing each other just in the hope of getting a glimpse of us - it’s just unbelievable"
We’ve been in Dhaka for five days now and one can’t help but be totally overwhelmed by the passion of the fans in this cricket-mad country. I’m a Liverpool fan myself, and I remember standing in the Old Kop at Anfield during the last game before it was demolished. Ian Rush scored that day against Coventry and the surge of fans and the adrenalin of that charged atmosphere is something that will live for me forever. Those are the type of supporters that Bangladesh have.
At our training sessions there have been hundreds of fans crushing each other just in the hope of getting a glimpse of us. That shows you the type of standing cricket has here – we were just training, doing nothing out of the ordinary, and they turn up in droves – it’s just unbelievable.
On Saturday morning, eight of the squad went to visit Plan Bangladesh which is a charity which helps disadvantaged children in the developing world. We’re very aware of our responsibility as international cricketers to do as much as we can, and we’re getting involved with several charities while on tour. They include the Irish Cancer Society, Plan Ireland, The Hope Foundation, as well as the ICC Projects Room to Read and Thinkwise.
Full postDhaka crowds back after a break
This Sunday in Dhaka had a terrible hungover feel
Sidharth Monga
25-Feb-2013
This Sunday in Dhaka had a terrible hungover feel. It had been a week full of partying out in the streets, and then suddenly the home team ran into Virender Sehwag. Reality check. Suddenly the World Cup came crashing down. For the first time since landing here on Tuesday, I saw empty streets Saturday night. Such quiet so soon after such noise can be unsettling. The next morning was to be worse.
Not only for Bangladesh, but the whole World Cup. The roads remained as quiet as is possible in Dhaka. No flags on the streets, no vuvuzelas, no horns, no people on rooftops. The worst realisation dawned when you switched the TV on, and saw Kenya and Canada play, you realised there was a whole month of meaningless matches before you could get into the World Cup proper. It is in fact a tribute to the Dhaka people that they created that World Cup atmosphere, and so well that even the most cynical of analysts forgot what an ordeal awaits them in the league stages.
It was through peaceful roads on Monday morning that we made our way to the Bangladesh nets session. They looked jovial, they seemed to have moved on from the defeat in the opener. Bowlers fought with batsmen over whether the shot would have been caught by the imaginary field he had set, or whether it would have gone into the gap. However, thousands of people didn’t wait outside, like they had been doing the previous week, to catch a glimpse of their heroes when they would leave.
Full postThe reality of cricket buzz in the Indian metro
It was D-Day across the cricketing world
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
It was D-Day across the cricketing world. The clocks that had been counting down for the past 100 days hit multiple zeros and kickoff (maybe in cricket we have to call it bowl off?) was imminent. On television, Mirpur looked electric. The colours, the sounds, the buzz were all contagious and I wanted to experience a small piece of it for myself.
I had a very basic, sketchy idea of what I wanted to see: locals gathered around a stall of some description, studying the match as though their lives depended on it. It sounds as generalised as someone saying they want to come to South Africa and see someone taking care of their pet lion as though it were a house cat. Those are things that will only be seen out on a game reserve, and even then pet is a strong word to use for the king of the jungle, no matter how cuddly he might be.
Similarly, the stall idea may have been applicable to a more working class part of the city, but in big, bustling central Bangalore there was not a chance of seeing one. In the space of a few hours in the veins of the city - MG Road and surrounds - my ideal of how cricket is watched in India was shattered and replaced by something more normal and realistic, something that made me realise that Bangalore, at one level, is just like any other major city in the world.
Full postBled blue into quiet World Cup excitement
There's been a bit of a worry in India over the last few weeks - that India is not really that into the World Cup.
Sharda Ugra
25-Feb-2013
There's been a bit of a worry in India over the last few weeks - that India is not really that into the World Cup. That there's no buzz in the air, there's no frisson on the streets. Compared to the news coming in from Bangladesh of crowds singing and dancing past midnight outside the stadium and lining the streets from Dhaka to Mirpur as the team buses go past, there certainly isn't.
But there is a certain surge around India too. Call it the World Cup media tsunami. To begin with, it's hard to miss the monster-sized posters of snarling cricketers - so far identified as Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Sreesanth and someone who looks a cross between Zaheer Khan and Cheteshwar Pujara - ordering the public to "Bleed Blue".
A few weeks ago they were wearing shirts. With the event now upon us, they have all ripped their shirts off, and shown us what blue blood really looks like: a Nike logo on the right pectoral and the BCCI logo, closer to their hearts, on the left.
Full postWe must enjoy the World Cup experience
As I embark on my second World Cup with Ireland, my abiding memory of the 2007 event was the sheer excitement of the occasion
John Mooney
25-Feb-2013
As I embark on my second World Cup with Ireland, my abiding memory of the 2007 event was the sheer excitement of the occasion. Back then we were new on the world stage, and parts of the country didn’t even know we played the sport.
We couldn’t have scripted that competition any better from a media perspective as we started with a tied game with Zimbabwe – only the third in the history of the competition. That got people back home hooked, but that was only the appetiser ahead of the St Patrick’s Day game with Pakistan.
We produced one of the great upsets of all time by beating the star studded side in a tense low scoring game in Jamaica, and it’s fair to say that Irish cricket hasn’t looked back since.
Full postHoliday time in Sri Lanka, again
Arriving in any country on a public holiday is never the best plan
Osman Samiuddin
25-Feb-2013
Arriving in any country on a public holiday is never the best plan. In Sri Lanka, the chances of that are probably higher than most countries because there are more public holidays here than almost anywhere in the world. It is an issue, more serious than is likely imagined.
The first estimate - an informed one, mind you - I heard today of how many there can be in a year sounded downright outrageous: eight months of the year can be, for some workers, a holiday. We counted over 25 official public holidays this year. Casual, medical and other kinds of paid leave from work total up to over 40 days comfortably for an employee. Saturdays and Sundays off through the year are another 100-plus.
Often when a public holiday falls on a weekend, an extra day off might be announced during the week. If a Tuesday is off, often the Monday will be lumped on; a Thursday off might blend into a long weekend. If you're entitled to maternity leave, well, you can see how the numbers add up. An editorial back in 2002 - since when a few more holidays have been designated - worked out that public servants could in effect work 46 four-day weeks a year.
Full postDhaka reconnects with the Bangabandhu
Bangabandhu Stadium was once the soul of Bangladesh cricket, and sport in general
Sidharth Monga
25-Feb-2013
Bangabandhu Stadium was once the soul of Bangladesh cricket, and sport in general. By extension, the soul of the nation itself. It gave not only Bangladesh, but also Pakistan, their Test debuts, in 1955 and in 2000. It staged successfully the Champions Trophy in 1998-99. Being situated in the Gulistan area, it is in the heart of Dhaka, easy for people to access, for them to make cricket part of their lives. Right next to it is the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.
Old-timers talk wistfully of the days when the stadium was the home of Bangladesh cricket. When college kids could bunk classes and catch domestic cricket, when office-goers could watch evening sessions, when life merged with cricket and cricket merged with life. Most missed is the adda (when Bengali people either side of the border sit and chat, they like to call the arrangement an adda) outside the stadium around the various small restaurants that served cheap food. Tea, food, smoke, sport, and endless debates and discussions on sport. Meerpoor keno jabo amra was the common cry when it was announced that the Shere Bangla National Stadium would be the new home of Bangladesh cricket. Why must we go to Mirpur?
Ambitious and modern, Shere Bangla is an impressive ground. Drainage, seating, dressing rooms are top class, and the practice facilities are perhaps the best in the subcontinent. Four teams can train there simultaneously without bumping into each other. The crowd is cared for better too. Long will the tradition-v-modernity debate carry on at the addas in the rest of Dhaka, but fact remains that the locals miss their old iconic ground, their original adda. Gone with cricket are the restaurants, and the Outer Stadium. They have been replaced by other sports association offices. One of them is delightfully named “Mohammad Ali Boxing Stadium”.
Full postWorld Cup fever in Bangladesh
My enduring memory of cricket in Bangladesh is from the last day of India’s tour in 2007
Sidharth Monga
25-Feb-2013
My enduring memory of cricket in Bangladesh is from the last day of India’s tour in 2007. There wasn’t much left in the match: Bangladesh were sure to lose the Test by an innings. There was no if, only when. Then Mohammad Ashraful, perhaps the most frustrating cricketer to have come from the country, lifted the gloom with a counterattacking half-century. In the unforgiving heat of May, the whole stadium danced to his shots. It was joyful while it lasted. For those 46 minutes, which got Ashraful 67 runs, the crowd forgot all that had gone wrong with their cricket after a pretty successful World Cup. And then, Ashraful got out. The sigh that followed from the crowd is the loudest I have heard. And then silence. Comprehensive. These crowds make it fun to watch cricket in Bangladesh.
Four years on, I came back looking for similar passion, for similar atmosphere, for similar celebration of cricket. Naturally, huge hype was expected around the World Cup. As Shakib Al Hasan said, this is the only sport they play the World Cup of. The only World Cup they are hosting. The first time in their history when their progression to the second round, if it comes about, won’t be considered an upset.
In terms of build-up, I saw no disappointment. The first thing I saw in the country, walking out of the aircraft, was the big ICC World Cup hoarding, welcoming people to Bangladesh. However, equally noteworthy was the bottom quarter dedicated to the “commercial partners”. All of 11. I must have successfully managed to insulate myself to this aspect of the World Cup in India, because this was the first time it hit me.
Full postFinding calm at the MA Chidambaram Stadium
So many vehicles, two wheels, four wheels, even three wheels
Firdose Moonda
25-Feb-2013
So many vehicles, two wheels, four wheels, even three wheels. For a kid, most probably a boy, from anywhere outside of India, it would have been wheelie heaven. For me, it was one of the most intimidating sights I have ever seen. And it was only Chennai, not one of the really traffic-plagued cities like Bangalore or Mumbai.
Chennai is a different city to the one I met four years before when I came on a trip to India to discover my ancestry. To my eye, the sheer volume of vehicles on the road has increased many fold. It’s the most literal illustration of globalisation in Indian cities and to see it with my own eyes was both overwhelming and exhilarating.
To sit in it was nothing short of exciting. I’m certain that more accidents don’t happen on Indian roads because of the sheer deftness of the drivers. Their instincts are sharper than most fielders as they dodge and swerve while managing to hoot and act as tour guides at the same time. A journey as short as five kilometres can take up to 40 minutes but the spectacle is worth every second.
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