Danny Byrne **
Match tickets are in my wallet. The first hurdle has been overcome. The Hyderabad Test begins two days from now.
Danny Byrne on the left with Nick White, an Australian cricket-lover, at an England Test Match in Galle some years back (photo by Roberts)
Obtaining tickets for the first Test Match wasn’t as difficult as I had expected. When the on-line website for Paytm – insider was working, and the WiFi in the Hotel had a decent signal, the process took only a few minutes. Of course, the best seats were sold out within 24 hours of being available, suggesting that very few were actually there in the first place. Turning the electronic tickets into paper versions was equally straightforward, at least by Indian standards. Hampshire Plaza Hotel is right next to Lakdi Ka Pul Metro Station on the red line and the Gymkhana Ground is close to Parade Ground on the Blue Line. The cost was only 40 rupees per journey and cash payments were acceptable. The trains were full, but not uncomfortably full. Apparently, they only can the sardines in the evening.
The Rajv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad
The people staffing the Box Office counters at the Gymkhana Ground were polite and efficient. They had no interest in proof of ID and any of the other nonsense about photocopies of passport pages as mentioned on the website. The 6-digit booking code was all they were interested in. There was a match in progress on the Gymkhana pitch, but I couldn’t find out who was playing. The security guard was determined to stop people watching from the Parade Ground End through a hole in the fence and I wasn’t interested in walking around to the other side of the stadium. I followed the Metro line along the road until I came to the next station, which was ironically named Paradise, right in the middle of a concrete jungle. The trains back to Lakdi Ka Pur were less crowded than before and the passengers were mostly young and friendly. All the stations had public toilets and working escalators, something the London Underground would certainly benefit from.
The England side arrived in Hyderabad only a few days prior to the Series commencing having chosen to “warm up” in Abu Dhabi rather than within India itself. Several of my colleagues travelling to watch some of this Series are adamant that it is vital to arrive several weeks’ earlier and schedule at least two first class games against local opposition. This form of preparation allows the side to acclimatise and gradually feel more comfortable playing on Indian wickets, or so the argument goes. In a perfect world where the allocation of appropriate grounds can be guaranteed, alongside the quality of opposition, this strategy would probably pay dividends. However, the home side will oversee selecting the grounds and the opponents will comprise of sides not currently involved in Ranji Trophy matches. The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) are not going to provide an India “A” side, prepare spinning wickets similar to what can be expected in Hyderabad and throw two or three top class spinners into the equation too.
The Lions touring side currently playing in Ahmedabad are facing a third or fourth choice India team rather than a genuine “A” selection. Any team made available to play the England touring side would presumably be of an even weaker composition, notwithstanding the incredible strength in depth available to the Indian selectors compared with any other Test playing nation. When sides touring England request first class warm up games, they invariably end up playing cards with the Derbyshire Second Elevens as the rain falls incessantly in Chesterfield. Imagine if England were to be given a match in Delhi, Meerut, Chandigarh (Mohali) or Kanpur. The batsmen would need to wear headlamps to see the ball, such is the extent of fog and smog interrupting play at this time of the year. The temperature would be under 10 degrees and the impact would be demoralising rather than motivational.
At least in Abu Dhabi McCullum, Stokes and the England Cricket Board can pay for pitches to be prepared to best replicate what they expect to find in Hyderabad. They can bring in net bowlers to focus on particular perceived weaknesses and so on. Basically, they oversee how the whole process evolves. It was a tactic that appeared to work very well before the tour to Pakistan the previous winter. The players were in good spirits, strongly motivated and in the best possible frame of mind to begin the series positively and aggressively. That isn’t something to be overlooked and it couldn’t be guaranteed if things were to go badly wrong with warm up games in India. Another side benefit with the players having just arrived in Hyderabad is that hopefully they will all remain physically healthy for the next two or three days and will each have unopened boxes of Imodium when the first ball is bowled on Thursday morning.
***** *****
