One tandoori leg, ump!

 

 

Gautam Bhimani

ESPN Star Sports Commentator

‘Tis a season for birthdays, certainly in the cricketing world. Having just brought my own in just days before embarking on another gruelling summer of cricket (on the same day that India celebrated her 75th birthday as an international cricketing nation), I was faced with the prospect of plenty of cake cutting and candle blowing as the countdown to the first Test at Lord’s began.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni started things off, closely followed by Sunil Gavaskar and Saurav Ganguly. Harsha Bhogle followed suit and Indian Team Manager Chandu Borde blew out a fair few candles at Lord’s. The newest addition to our commentary team, Graham Gooch, rounded things off nicely, though many of us patriotic Indians were tempted to make him blow out 333 candles for having inflicted misery on our bowlers 17 years earlier by scoring 333!

After the freezing start to the ‘summer’ in Ireland, the Indians were glad to spend a few off days in a resort in Southampton before heading to another favourite British holiday spot, Brighton Beach. Britain has had its wettest summer in decades with torrential rainfall and major flooding in many parts. Day one at Brighton saw a dramatic metamorphosis. The sun was out in all its glory. Azure blue skies formed the perfect backdrop to the picturesque County Ground at Hove (Brighton & Hove is one town) and for once the term “summer” could be applied guilt free!

Hove, home of Sussex County Cricket Club has Indian connections aplenty. Ranjitsinghji and Duleepsinghji both played there as did the Nawab of Pataudi. Team India had a good work-out before heading to the sleepy Essex countryside. The business end of the tour began at Lord’s, the Mecca of cricket (according to the English that is). Whatever the status anyone bestows upon Lord’s, one thing you cannot argue with is the facilities. From the spaceship-shaped media centre to the word’s best drainage system, Lord’s lays it on. Evidence of the latter was seen on day two, as a deluge descended upon North London. As the rest of the country battled floods, Lord’s laid on cricket within an hour of the rain stopping. It was nothing short of a miracle. So much so that on the last day, the groundsman was presented a framed series of photographs, autographed by both captains, depicting the miracle they had performed, showing parts of the ground under water one minute, and play starting soon after. The media centre was a great place to hang out. There were cricket captains galore; Gooch, Brearley, Gower, Atherton, Gatting, Benaud. And a few unexpected guests like Boris Becker, a first time to the cricket for the former Wimbledon champion.

On the penultimate day, I had a strong sense of déjà vu as more than half of Lord’s chose to ignore the cricket and turned their attention to the British Open Golf, which was heading for an exciting finish at Carnoustie, Irishman Padraig Harrington, completing a fairytale finish to the delight of fans and Guinness (the distinct dark Irish beer). In 1996, I was at Lord’s waiting for my schoolmate Sourav to complete his debut hundred. On that day, die hard Bengalis did not budge from their seats but most of Lords had made their way to the Nursery end giant screens to watch England play Spain in a nail biting penalty shoot out in the European football championships.

As it turned out, the golf was more fulfilling than the result at Lord’s. The British love to talk about the weather but after England was denied a victory by the unkind weather, that tradition too has been dispensed with!