He who does not know his past cannot
make the best of his present and future.
For it is from the past that we learn.
Sheikh Zayed
Hi everyone!
And hello from Abu Dhabi.
Alongside visiting
Nicole, I have been able to watch the Pakistan v England Test Match: Days 1 to 3 at the Sheikh Zayed stadium.
It has been a tremendous
few days, for this is most definitely not like watching cricket at my beloved
Hove.
You buy your ticket
from a portacabin, somewhat mysteriously placed some 400 metres from the stadium.
And as you walk to
the ground, you can see games going on, played on sand,
I won’t overly dwell
on the Catering ....
Day 1: vegetable samosas
– never again
Day 2: meat biryani
Day 3: back to the vegetable samosas !!
As someone who
often benefits from Mrs Lambourne’s
Luxury Cricket Picnics; I’m never going on an overseas tour again without you,
Sally!!
The weather has
been in the mid 30 degrees in the shade of the South Stand; probably closer to
40 out in the middle.
One Old Timer (*)
said it was the hottest temperature for a Test Match since The Don scored 169 at the MCG against
Gubby Allen’s England on the Down Under tour of 1936/37 for the Aussies to win
the series, having been 2 down with 3 to play.
* (Editor: that would be an Old Timer with access
to Google!!)
For those of you
who have watched T20s with me at Hove on a Friday evening and felt
the chill of the Westerly wind whipping across the County Ground, well there’s absolutely no need for a jumper and an
outdoor coat here!!
In truth, the crowd
has been small. Not so much the
Barmy Army as the Barmy Platoon. Probably 3 to 1 Pakistan
to England supporters. Fantastic
supporters: the Barmies starting each day with their singing of Jerusalem and
the Pakistanis waving their flags and cheering on their team.
I was very
fortunate to be joined on Day 2 by Dave Marshall, a friend of Nicole’s, and on
Day 3 by Dave, his son Wilf and Wilf’s friend Mia.
They were great
company. I look forward to
seeing them at Hove when Pakistan visit to play Sussex in Summer 2016.
As for the game
itself, by necessity I must be even more vague than usual.
There was a fantastic
electronic scoreboard on the far side of the ground. But the combination of the
sun and my fading eyesight meant I could only read it with any confidence in
the last hour of each day’s play!
As I write this, at
the end of Day 4 Pakistan have scored 523 for 8 declared, with England on 569 for 8,
leading by 46 runs.
This is not a pitch on which to be a bowler, especially not a debutant. Poor old Adil Rashid, playing his first
Test for England, bowled 34 overs for 163 runs and no wickets; the most number
of first innings runs conceded on debut without a wicket.
Take heart, Adil,
for another leg spinner’s first bowling stats were 150 for 1. But it didn’t turn
out to badly for him: Shane Warne ended his career with 708 Test wickets and
was voted one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the 20th Century.
(Post Blog note: in the second innings Rashid took 5 for 64. Cricket, eh !! )
With such high scores,
there were batting records as far as the eye could see.
Alastair Cook, the England
Captain, scored 263 and batted 836 minutes, the 3rd longest innings
in Test history and the longest ever by an England player. To put the 836
minutes in context, it was longer the entire Test match at Trent Bridge in the
2015 Ashes.And longer than the
combined total match time of England at the last Football and Rugby World Cups!
For Pakistan Shoaib
Malik was playing his first Test match for over 5 years.His 245 was the
first time it had ever been scored in Test cricket. Only 229 and 238 are left
to complete a full set of scores from 0 to 250.
Sitting next to me on
Day 1 was a youngish (late 20s?) guy who was following Twitter.
A few minutes after
Malik scored his century, the young guy said he had just seen a tweet from
Andrew Samson, the Test Match Special scorer, that Shoaib had joined a very
select band of players who have scored a 100 in their comeback Test after
missing 40+ Tests.
I saw him look
again at the tweet.
Only one English player
on the list, he said. Anyone know anything about who J Parks was?
Truly the Gods look
after those in the desert in their hour of need … As Sheikh Zayed said: He who does not know his past cannot make
the best of his present.
That would be Young
Jim Parks, I said, my Favourite Player.
What would you like
to know about him?
[Dear Reader: Please
insert any – but surely not all - of the many stories you have heard me tell
many, many times about Young Jim.]
I so, so enjoyed my
3 days at the Sheikh Zayed stadium.
Memories to treasure
forever.
I will sign off
with just one.
Watching England play
overseas – especially with such a small crowd – you feel like part of a family.
The players at the centre, of course, the backup staff, the media and finally the
supporters.
Have a look at the
photo, at the man in white shirt between the two umbrellas.
I had seen him on
the first morning, on the edge of the outfield, looking at the England players
warming up. He chatted to a couple of the England coaches.
And then about 15 minutes
before Close of Play he made his way to sit by the photographers, whom he
clearly knew very well, and watched the last few overs intently.
Every day he did exactly the same.
And every day I especially
looked out for him, morning and evening.
At end of Day 3, as
the England Captain walked back to the Pavilion not out 167, the man was one of
the very first to stand up and applaud.
Most of us, I guess,
have learnt to live contented lives, but by the Laws of Statistics they are
ordinary lives.
As I looked down at
the man clapping, I wondered what it must be like to be a Sky Sports cricket
commentator, to be paid to travel the world and to watch and talk about the
game that you have loved all your life.
Beyond Wonderful indeed!
But what if you had
played for England for 15 years in 102 Tests, scoring 5,200 runs and taking 383
wickets? If the scorecard had showed you as IT Botham?
Sir Ian and I have
never met.
But we don’t need
to for me to know that he would give up commentating in an instant if Cookie came over one morning and said: Beefy, we’re one short today, fancy
playing?
After all ….
Why read a
Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can be in one. ©
See you soon!!
Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace
Follow me on Twitter: LordRic52
PS
It may not have been Hove, but some things never change.
My eyelids still get very heavy after lunch !!!
