CUCC coach Chris Scott reports on the India Tour
Thursday 04 February 2010
Standing on Parkers’ Piece in a blizzard, waiting for the delayed National Express coach to Heathrow, was an inauspicious start to the first CUCC overseas tour in more than a decade. Our destination was India: Delhi, and then Mumbai.
On the coach and on the flight, my mind started to wander and panic, worrying about whether our tour would fall in to place, whether there would be any problems with transfers, hotels, or the matches we had scheduled. I need not have bothered: we were met promptly at Delhi’s airport, taken to the hotel, and our tour progressed without any logistical, transport or other problems.
Delhi was cold: the locals said that even though it was midwinter it was colder than usual. Added to that, the sun seemed to be permanently hidden by a dense mist that stayed around the whole time we were there. Needless to say, we wrapped up from top to bottom in scenes reminiscent of a cold April day at the start of our own season.
Despite this we played a T20 match against both Delhi U-19s and the British High Commission, and a 40-overs match versus Roshnara CC.
Having toured several times myself, I understand the difficulty teams have in stepping off the plane in a foreign country – in alien conditions – and when there have been only a handful of indoor nets to fall back on. Nevertheless, we competed well against good opposition.
A win against the British High Commission was followed by close defeats in the other two games. Ed Pearson, Ananya Sen and Phil Ashton were the standout batters of the Delhi leg of the tour, while Matt Cook, Thomas Probert, Marc Rosenberg and Michael Taylor all enjoyed good spells with the ball.
On our only day off in Delhi most of the squad took the opportunity to take the long but worthwhile journey to Agra and the Taj Mahal, a sight I will never forget. We should also thank local boy Ananya Sen for leading us through the winding streets of the city to one of Delhi's hidden treasures, Karim's famous restaurant.
From Delhi it was only a short flight to Mumbai, but the change in weather conditions was dramatic: we walked straight into temperatures of more than thirty degrees and immediately reached for the water and sunblock.
Our hectic playing schedule continued and we faced four consecutive days of cricket ahead of us. With a virus going round the squad, however, my problem was not so much selection, but finding eleven people fit to play!
Our first encounter in Mumbai was a 50-overs game against the city’s university.
Unfortunately, this became more of a practice match since our hosts were more concerned at looking at as many players as they could before an upcoming tournament. That we were not told at the toss they would field more than an XI, or indeed until the match was half-gone was very disappointing, but it was the only negative of the tour.
We did, however, turn in a high-scoring and creditable performance, with Frankie Brown making the tour’s highest score of 88. Rosenberg and Timms also batted well for their 40 and 32, respectively, while Cook, Timms and Brown got amongst the wickets.
Things got back to normal the next day with a T20 game against a strong local club side. CUCC chased down a target of 115 for the loss of 4 wickets, a cameo from Ashton giving our innings impetus. Good contributions came from Owen and Brown, too.
We were fortunate enough to play the next game at the Cricket Club of India’s (CCI) impressive Brabourne Stadium. CCI fielded a strong team and, despite reaching a creditable 213 off our 40 overs, our innings was again littered with too many cameos instead of lengthy innings.
Anand Ashok produced his best batting of the tour here for 45, Ansari made a quick-fire 38, while Rosenberg (34) Owen (25) and Timms (21) all chipped in. CCI made light work of reaching the total.
It was at CCI that the squad was introduced to Dr Hamied, our generous sponsor and alumnus of Christ’s College. He attended the match with his good friend and former England Test captain Tony Lewis, who came up with the original idea of the tour. Both gentlemen watched the proceedings with interest and both were a pleasure to meet and talk to.
Our last game, at the lovely Bombay Gymkhana ground in the heart of Mumbai, saw us take on the strongest opposition of the tour, the Bombay Gymkhana CC itself. Although all but two of the squad were available for this match, it could not hide the fact that fatigue had set in. Our total of 173 just was not enough – in spite of an excellent recovery effort from Sen and Rupert Wingate-Saul – and it was knocked off in quick time for only the loss of a couple of wickets.
Our batsman all made contributions throughout the tour, but no one – unfortunately – played a big, match-winning innings. Each of our specialists made a score of 30 more than once, yet only Ananya Sen (twice) and Frankie Brown posted half-centuries. This is not, however, taking anything away from the reality that in short matches colourful cameos can be very valuable and that all of the batters had their moments.
Our bowling options were limited first by unavailability and then by illness. Nevertheless, Thomas Probert was very consistent throughout; Marc Rosenberg, Matt Cook and Akbar Ansari each had good spells, while James Greenwood got better with each game. In fact, in each but the last game did our bowling look out of place or uncompetitive, and this despite us coming up against some high quality batsman.
Our fielding had good and bad days, but Akbar Ansari’s display against Bombay University was without doubt the standout fielding performance of the tour.
All in all, I was satisfied with the way the boys played, taking in to account that the tour was in the middle of our off season, in conditions different from those in England, and that we came up against some quality opposition. Perhaps we wasted one or two opportunities to win games, especially with the bat, and perhaps our fielding was not up to scratch, but hopefully everyone will come back better players for the experience and will have learnt more about their game.
This was my first visit to India and one that I would like to repeat. As a cricket tour it was everything I imagined it would be: good cricket, chaos, and plenty of chillies. The Bombay Gymkhana ground was a magnificent venue and although Mumbai gave us plenty of sunshine, we shouldn’t forget the hospitality shown by our hosts in Delhi.
Again, I would like to extend my eternal thanks to our benefactor Dr Hamied, whilst appreciating the help we received from Clare Birch and the CU Development Office, our tour operators Sachin Bajaj and Umesh, and Mr Tony Lewis.
Lastly, I must thank our tour manager, Roger Knight, whose extensive knowledge of India and , of course, cricket – where he has been a much-respected player, captain and administrator – made my life on tour that much easier.
Chris Scott,
January 2010
