Touring with one eye closed

Over at CI, Nasser Hussain is interviewed by John Stern. A decent interview, quite honest at all times. There aren't too many surprises but that's largely because we've heard Nasser say most of what is in this interview in various articles and pronouncements from the press box over the years. What I want to focus on is a comment of his about touring the subcontinent. I do so because I think it is revealing of the tunnel vision of sportsmen. Not English ones in particular, for I think this attitude crosses national lines.

When asked "How did the team's fortunes change?" Nasser replies,

We created a team. We went to the subcontinent in 2000-01, which really helped because there's not much to do socially there. We created a unity by ensuring that all our rooms were on the same corridor of the hotels. We'd leave doors open, there'd be PlayStation sessions and quiz nights, a lot of banter. People worked hard in the gym.

What is interesting here is the claim there is not much to do "socially" in the subcontinent. This gave me pause. What could Nasser have in mind? Does he mean there aren't any people to meet? That can't be it; the problem would rather more likely be that there are too many people around.

But more to the point, what is the problem in just walking around the streets of a part of the world you aren't too familiar with? (Indeed, when I travel, there are times I disdain a guidebook and just stroll). What, that is, is the problem with displaying simple curiosity about your location?

Perhaps Nasser has cultural entertainment in mind: music performances, theater, a visit to a art gallery. Yet, somehow, I doubt that Playstation-philic young men have these in mind. Perhaps it's a pub that's missing?

I'm not really trying to take the mickey here. I'm genuinely curious. When I say of a neighborhood in the American suburbs, that "there is nothing to do," I mean things like the above: it's deserted, there are no centers of cultural activity. But then, the American suburbs are reasonably familiar to me, and there isn't much one can discover by walking (unless rows of manicured lawns is your thing). The same isn't true of most locales that the English team would have found itself in. (I agree there might have been security issues in Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the tours that Nasser mentions that might have made moving out of the hotels difficult). Guides and guidance might have been needed but surely those could have been arranged?

As I said above, I don't intend this post to be just about the English and the subcontinent. I wonder how many of the cricketers that tour take the opportunity to soak up some of the locales they find themselves in.

To travel is to be fortunate; one wonders if the extent of this good fortune is known to the lads that go and do cricketing battle in distant lands.

Atherton on British Asian cricketers - whose culture?

An analysis of Michael Atherton's take (in the Times) on the 'failure' of British Asian cricketers is up at Different Strokes.

Really, Beefy?

So, today, while watching the third day's play of the England-West Indies test at the ARG, I thought that Ian Botham's unwavering insistence that England enforce the follow-on in case the West Indies couldn't avoid it was, quite frankly, one of the silliest things I've heard a supposedly expert commentator say. For the record, it had been a hot day, Harmison was decidedly crook, Flintoff was clearly injured, England's lead was likely to be around 250 or so, the pitch was not getting easier to bat on, and an offspinner was taking wickets. Under that set of circumstances, why someone wouldn't want to bat again and rack up another 170-200 runs before creating a fourth innings pressure cooker was beyond me. Sir Beefy kept insisting that England "go for the jugular" but I'm not sure what he thought they were going to use as a weapon. And when reminded of the injuries his response was, "Well, are they going to get better in a day?". Well, perhaps not, but the two bowlers in question would have had some rest. Sometimes Botham is so caught up in his hard man act, its hard to tell whether one should take him seriously (OK, I know the answer to that one, but it was still a bit strange to watch). Talking to him was Nasser, who is a hard man in his own right, and his expression was giving the game away. He clearly wanted to be on his hands and knees, looking for that lost set of marbles.