David Lloyd: England take the short tour aboard Salim's magic bus (27 October 1998)
ENGLAND were the first team to arrive in Bangladesh for the Wills International Cup
27-Oct-1998
27 October 1998
David Lloyd: England take the short tour aboard Salim's magic bus
By David Lloyd
ENGLAND were the first team to arrive in Bangladesh for the Wills
International Cup. And what a reception we received.
Every member of the party received a garland of flowers and we
were whisked through immigration and on to our hotel in Dhaka. It
is always one of those special moments on tour when you meet the
driver of the team bus. This time, we had Salim, who is an
absolute hoot. He has in his possession a Boney M cassette with
the song One Way Ticket on it. He greets us with it on every
trip, and took to singing it to us.
Our preparation for this tournament consisted of two net
practices and two warm-up games, against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
It would be very easy to talk only cricket, but I feel I must
make mention of the country of Bangladesh, and the circumstances
its people have found themselves in over these past few weeks.
Our first views were from the air and, believe me, we saw nothing
but water. It was still raining and the place was awash. On our
journey to the National Stadium, there were torrents of water at
the side of the roads, and the outfield at the ground was like a
paddy field. Incredibly, the pitches were snuff-dry, and we
practised. To play our practice matches, we had a 90-minute coach
journey to the National Institute of Sport. We crossed a
causeway, which took us 30 minutes, and we saw nothing but water
on either side. In fact, there should have been just a small
river, and on meeting Gordon Greenidge, the Bangladesh national
coach, at the ground, he told us that the causeway had only just
reappeared after the floods. I have to mention that the causeway
is about 40 feet above land level.
As for the cricket, we were into our stride immediately with a
convincing win over Zimbabwe. Nick Knight and Alistair Brown got
us off to a rollicking start, and although we quickly lost Graeme
Hick and Neil Fairbrother, Graham Lloyd and Adam Hollioake put a
telling partnership together with some typical busy batting.
Jack Russell hustled the tail along and we finished just short of
200 on a saturated outfield in our 45 overs. We fancied our
chances, and the Lancashire duo of Peter Martin and Ian Austin
hit their straps and reduced Zimbabwe to 20 for four. We bundled
them out for 79 and I was totally satisfied with our performance.
We played Bangladesh at the same venue, but this time, in front
of 10,000 spectators. I have not got a clue where they came from
because the stadium, although state-of-the-art, seems to be in
the middle of nowhere. They love their cricket out here and even
the strikes have been suspended until the tournament is over.
Bangladesh are not in the tournament, so this was their final. We
batted first, this time on a damp pitch, and had a difficult
start. Mark Ealham was moved up the order and got us into gear
with some robust hitting. The Lancashire duo of Lloyd and
Fairbrother then put together a typical partnership.
The tail wagged and we were up to 230. Our performance with the
ball and in the field was competent without being outstanding.
Bangladesh closed on 193 after I had challenged our boys to
defend 175. Bangladesh gave a good account of themselves in front
of an excitable crowd, and I can see them emerging on the
international scene in time, just as Sri Lanka did.
Nearing the end of the game, we saw the customary sight of
security men surrounding the playing area, but this time with
rifles. Apparently, the loudspeaker message was to the effect
that anyone entering the playing arena would be shot. It came as
no surprise that the players and officials left the field in
relative comfort. There is probably a lesson here for all our
Test-match grounds!
And so to the game against South Africa at the National Stadium.
We were confident, relaxed and in good spirits. Hollioake won the
toss and elected to bat. We started adequately after losing Brown
early, then Ealham gave the innings impetus with some cracking
stroke-play.
After the first 15 overs, we were 84 for two, but once again lost
a batch of wickets for no apparent reason. Top pitch, nothing
untoward in the bowling, but we somehow arrived at 90 for five.
Fairbrother drew on all his experience and Hollioake played
superbly as the two combined in a top-class partnership.
Everybody chipped in and a real team effort got us to 281.
We knew South Africa would come at us with guns blazing. We have
to say that at no time did we look like stopping the run flow.
Their big guns, Daryll Cullinan, Hansie Cronje and Jonty Rhodes,
led the charge and we did not do nearly enough to win the game.
We looked tentative with the ball and lacked conviction and
variation. It was a great disappointment for the captain, who ran
himself to a standstill during his innings. He suffered from
exhaustion in the 36C heat and 80 per cent humidity and had to
leave the field from time to time. He must have been struggling
because he is one tough customer.
This is a sudden-death competition, something new to world
cricket, so our loss means we are on the way home, or in my case,
off to a fresh challenge in Perth.
As always at the end of our participation in a tournament, there
are areas for improvement, but there were pluses to come from our
time in Bangladesh. Among them was Ealham's elevation in the
batting order for the first 15 overs, which worked well.
Fairbrother showed again how effective he is, Hollioake regained
his form, and Ashley Giles will challenge for a spinning place.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)