Orderly queue please

By Big Harvey
March 14 2011

Big Harvey reports on another trial and tribulation for him and England fan's attending.  This is followed by more dramas as England turned defeat into victory then defeat. But lets give the Bangla's their dew.  The atmosphere of the whole occasion is superbly covered and is a compulsive read.  

It's a mighty long way from Chennai in Southern India to Chittagong in Bangladesh, and the majority of England fans attending this tournament were put off this one by a combination of the absence of direct flights, the cost and hassle involved in getting a Bangladesh visa, and also the bureaucratic nightmare involved in getting an Indian visa that would allow re-entry within 60 days. This is normally not possible on an Indian tourist visa under complicated rules introduced last year, except under certain conditions. Convincing the jobsworths at VFS - the agency to whom the Indian High Commission has outsourced visa applications that your trip met those certain conditions - had proved in practice to be far from easy, and most people understandably couldn't be bothered.

For me there were three choices:

1.     Head for the beaches of Goa for some some sun, sea, sand, and serious relaxation before heading back to Chennai for England's final group game.

2.     Book a return flight from Chennai to the unspoilt paradise of The Andaman Islands for beaches and exploration.

3.     Embark on a marathon overland journey from Chennai to Chittagong, passing through two of the most chaotic, overcrowded, and polluted cities in the world (Kolkata and Dhaka),  via a border crossing that rarely sees a Westerner, watch the game, and do it all again in reverse to get back to Chennai.

 Well, obviously it was a no-brainer.

I left Chennai a few hours after the end of the South Africa game. Thankfully my train, The Howrah Mail, was a couple of hours late arriving in Kolkata, which bumped the journey time up above 30 hours, but spared me the scheduled 4 am arrival, and meant that I got in just as it was getting light. It was a truly magical time to be arriving in such an atmospheric place. It was my first time in Kolkata, and I loved it straight away. I'd originally planned to have a night there to break the journey, then take the twice-a-week Maitree Express to Dhaka the following day, and hopefully an overnight train from there to Chittagong.

However, after discovering that there was a bus leaving for Chittagong at 1 pm that afternoon with an empty seat on it, I bought a ticket on impulse. Just time to grab some breakfast, check into a cheap guest-house for a few hours, get a shower and a change of clothes, and send my report of the South Africa match off to Barmy Kev. I would hopefully get some time to explore Kolkata on my way back.

1 pm is an interesting time to be leaving Kolkata. According to the Lonely Planet, that's the time when many of the city's one way systems change to being one way in the opposite direction! Apparently many taxi drivers refuse journeys at that time of day, and it might explain why it took 20 minutes just for the bus to get to the end of the street.

The border crossing appeared confusing enough even for the Indian and Bangladeshi passengers, and I was completely clueless. Several people either snatched my passport out of my hand, or directed me to one side. Some it turned out were genuine immigration officers, others appeared to be just kids who were after a small donation in exchange for completing your forms for you. I just watched what the other passengers from my bus were doing and went with the flow.

On the Bangladeshi side I was bundled into a decrepit (even by subcontinental standards) micro-bus, and taken to the bus company office a couple of kilometres away. There after a 30 minute wait I was transferred to the correct bus for the Bangladesh leg of the journey. It was if anything slightly better than the one that had taken us to the border on the Indian side. Reclining seats meant at least some sleep was possible. Thankfully I wasn't seated at the front, so was spared the white knuckle experience involved in being able to see what the driver's doing and what's coming towards us on Bangladeshi roads!

I woke up as we were passing through Central Dhaka. Despite the fact it was about 2.30 am, there was almost total gridlock. It seems that with trucks being banned from the city's roads except at night, on the main roads at least the tangle of cycle rickshaws, cars, tuk-tuks, buses, etc. is simply replaced at night with nose-to-tail trucks, each obediently and frequently complying with the sign exhibited on the back of the truck ahead in Bangla and often in English too, exhorting them to “USE HORN PLEASE!”

The road to Chittagong was one big traffic jam too. Bangladesh's road system really is completely inadequate for the volumes of traffic it has to carry. We were dropped off at a bus depot on the outskirts and transferred to another smaller bus - or more accurately the battered remains of a smaller bus - to be taken into the city, from where I jumped into a tuk-tuk for the short ride to my chosen hotel. Total journey time from Kolkata was just over 22 hours.

The ground is some way out of the city, and I went down there the following day with four other England fans to pick up the tickets which Kyazoonga, the ICC's ticket agents were supposed to have sent us weeks ago by courier, but for reasons best known to themselves didn't. When we got to the ground, we were redirected somewhere a few minutes drive away, but found the queues there fairly manageable. There were several ticket windows open, each for a different part of the ground, and the queue at ours was the shortest. Our arrival was timely, since by the time everything was sorted, the queue behind us had built up quite considerably. According to a sign, the ticket office closed for lunch at 1 pm, and if that was true, some of those people in the queue behind us were going to be in for a long and frustrating wait!

Nice orderly queue

We were very much the centre of attention, and we posed for numerous photographs. As we all set off back into town in a large motorcycle rickshaw, a very sizeable crowd of friendly, smiling people had gathered to wave us off.

The most popular watering hole in Chittagong among travelling England fans ever since the 2010 tour of Bangladesh has been The Railwayman's. Tucked away down a nondescript and dusty side street behind a chaotic wholesale fruit and veg market, serving the locally brewed lager in the Fosters-like can known as Hunters, it really is a find. Bangladesh is a Muslim country of course, and although bars are legal, they have to keep a very low profile. The arrangement was to meet up there before the game, and a car would come and pick us up. It was a big car, and needed to be, since there were 9 of us! It was very far-sighted of one of our party, John Wickets to arrange this, and to arrange for it to be there to pick us up afterwards, too. Being so far out of town, your options for getting back can be very limited indeed.

Celibrious surroundings of The Railwayman-.

Despite being a sell-out, getting into the ground was completely stress-free. A great deal of pride and effort had clearly gone into Bangladesh's World Cup preparations. For security reasons the roads leading to the stadium had been closed off, and we had to walk about half a mile to the ground after being dropped off. On the approach to the ground, every single building or structure had been painted in patriotic green and red, even down to the humblest corrugated iron shack. Common-sense was shown during the friendly and polite security checks, and there were so many gates open that almost no queueing was involved! The contrast with the experiences of our clash with India in Bangalore could hardly have been greater.

Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field, presumably because of the likelihood of dew being a factor. Dew is the reason why in my opinion cricket should normally be a day game, and why the English climate in particular is unsuitable for Day/Night cricket, despite the ECB's and even the MCC's obsession with it.

England had 3 changes from the team that beat South Africa. Collingwood replaced Yardy, Shahzad and Morgan replaced the injured Broad and KP. Prior was to open with Strauss.

England got off to a quiet start in which Rubel inexplicably wasted one of Bangladesh's two reviews, on an LBW decision that was not only pitching way outside leg stump, but was miles too high. By the 5^th over, England had speeded things up a bit, and had progressed to 25-0.

The introduction of the spinners Naeem and Razzak slowed England to a crawl though. Razzak claimed the scalp of Prior for 10 in ridiculous fashion. The keeper removed the bails and appealed for a stumping. Prior had been in his ground, but left it as the keeper appealed, only for the keeper to remove a stump with the ball in his hand. Real schoolboy stuff from Prior, whose dismal World Cup  with both bat and gloves continued.

The pressure being exerted by the Bangladesh spinners then accounted for Strauss, caught at slip from an attempted cut as he tried to force the pace. 39-2 off 10.3 overs, and something of a crisis for England on what was a very slow pitch. Crisis turned to disaster as Bell followed cheaply, dollying to mid-wicket off Mahmadullah.

53-3 off 16.4 was not the start England were looking for, but Trott and Morgan steadied the ship, and the 100 came up off 26.1 overs, which was something of a recovery, despite increasing amounts of cloud cover offering help to the swing bowlers, and conditions so dark that it would be hard to imagine play continuing during a Test match. Why then were the lights not being used? It took until the 28^th over for them to be switched on, and by then it had already been dark for a long time.

Many of the snippets of music played between overs bore a striking resemblance to heavy and even thrash metal. Asking one young local who was head-banging away to it revealed that this genre is indeed popular here, and there are a number of bands in Bangladesh influenced by the likes of Iron Maiden and Metallica.

At the end of the 32^nd over, there was controversy as Shakib thought he had Trott LBW, but for some reason Hawkeye said it was the on-field umpire's call. It looked very, very out, but no joy for Bangladesh, and no more reviews.

Both batsmen notched up their 50's, Morgan off 60 deliveries, Trott off a more pedestrian 78, but he'd been happy to nurdle singles to give Morgan – who was in dominant form – the strike.

The 100 partnership came off 122 balls. In the 39^th over, with England looking poised to up the rate and post a useful total, Morgan was brilliantly caught by Kayes diving forward at deep backward square as he tried to sweep Naeem to the boundary. 162-4.

At the start of the 42^nd over, England went for the batting Powerplay. As usual this proved to be the catalyst for a slowdown followed by a batting collapse. Trott holed out to long-off for 67 off Shakib. 182-5 off 43.4.

Swann was promoted up the order ahead of Collingwood and did find the boundary a couple of times, although Bopara at the other end joined the procession, mistiming to cover off Razzak for 16.

The 200 came up (201-6) after 45.3 overs. Swann (12) and Bresnan (2) were both caught going for quick runs off Shakib and Rubel respectively. Shahzad (1) lost his middle stump taking a wild swing at Shafial in the penultimate over, and Collingwood (14) was run out going for a risky second with two balls still remaining. 225 all out off 49.4 overs. Once again England had been lacklustre with the bat, and had failed to use all their overs up. It has to be said though that Bangladesh bowled very tidily and made excellent use of helpful conditions.

The opening overs of Bangladesh's innings featured shoddy bowling and fielding by England, positive batting by Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, and harassment of England fans (once again) by an ICC official. In Chennai, Hazel and Ian, Bristol Rovers (i.e. “Gas”)  fans living in Hackney (who some of you will have met) were involved in a long-running argument with an ICC official with too much time on his hands. Apparently he had googled the slogan on their flag (“Hackney Gas”) and demanded its removal, and threatening them with ejection rom the ground for the sin of ambush marketing, since his googling apparently came up with an East London-based boiler and central heating repair firm. Presumably this company is preparing to diversify, go global and seriously undermine the tournament's official sponsors!

Here the issue was a flag partially covering the ICC's World Cup logo. It was actually not covering the logo at all, merely the pattern next to the logo, and the England fans stuck to their ground. Then we were told that the Barmy Army flag would have to come down, since it was “advertising.” Perhaps fearing a diplomatic incident, such was the strength of feeling, the official disappeared after a while, especially when he didn't get the backing he sought from the Bangladeshi police, who couldn't have cared less where we put our flags or (within reason) what slogans we had on them. It still left a nasty taste, though.

After 7 overs in which Anderson and especially Shahzad strayed far too often onto the batsmen's legs, and Bangladesh had progressed to 46-0, Swann was introduced into the attack and his first ball was contemptuously dispatched to the cover boundary by Imrul Kayes to bring the 50 up.

This was not looking good. The ball was wet with dew, and it was obvious from the beginning that Swann was having problems gripping it. Just when things were looking really ominous, Bresnan made the breakthrough, taking out Tamim's off-stump for an aggressive 38 off just 36 deliveries. Although only a cameo, his innings had given Bangladesh exactly the start they wanted. If they could just stay there and bat sensibly, this game was theirs for the taking.

For the next few overs, they looked like doing exactly that, but first Junaid Siddique was brilliantly run out by a direct hit from Anderson for 12, and then Raqibul lost his off-stump to an unplayable Shahzad delivery for a duck. He has often bowled poorly in this tournament, especially with the new ball, but he certainly does bowl wicket taking balls along with the mediocre stuff. 73-3 off 13.4, and it had all suddenly gone very quiet.

England failed to keep up the momentum though, and a combination of dreadful bowling and wicket keeping gifted Bangladesh far too many easy runs.

At the 20 over mark, Bangladesh were 105-3, compared with a Duckworth Lewis par score of 89. With the game rapidly slipping away from England and the wet ball slipping from Swann's grasp like a bar of soap, in the 26^th over, Swann asked umpire Harper for a ball change. When his request was declined, Swann made his displeasure known, and snatched his hat out of Harper's hand at the end of the over. Harper called Strauss over, and words were exchanged between Strauss and Swann, who was clearly furious. England were losing the game and the plot.

Imrul's 50 came off 91 balls, an innings of maturity, building solidly on the rapid start given by his opening partner, Tamim.

With Bangladesh cruising to victory on 147-3 off 30 overs, and England looking desperately short of both options and ideas, a couple of England fans had seen enough, and left, heading for the Railwayman's Bar! Why anyone would leave before the end having travelled so far and gone to so much trouble to get here is anyone's guess, but almost predictably their departure brought a wicket completely out of the blue, as Imrul Kayes (60) was run out by Shahzad going for a risky second. 154-4 off 31 overs.

Suddenly from nowhere England seemed to be able to apply pressure through Collingwood and Bresnan, and the mandatory ball change brought Swann back into the attack to bowl the 36 over, with Bangladesh on 160-4.  With a dry ball, Swann was a different proposition, and struck at the end of the first over of his spell, removing Shakib (32) with a delivery that just shaved off-stump.

Then in the very next over, Shahzad found the outside edge of Mushfiq's bat and Prior took the catch. Another wonderful delivery.

The next over, a maiden by Swann saw England creep ahead on Duckworth Lewis for the first time,  and in the next over, Shahzad produced another snorter, bowling Naeem off-stump for a duck! The game was completely turned on its head at 166-7, and when Bresnan took a brilliant diving catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Abdur Razzak for 1 (169-8 off 39.4), it was the Bangladesh fans who were now streaming from the ground in their droves, with the game looking all but finished.

Approximately 50% had already left when Mahmadullah and Shafiul Islam took 16 runs off Swann's final over to bring the remaining crowd and the game back to passionate life.

Some economic bowling by Shahzad and Bresnan took the required rate over a run a ball though, and England were still favourites. That's until a disastrous 9-ball over from Anderson yielded 11 runs, handing Bangladesh the advantage on a plate. England were now looking shell-shocked and spent, and with the remaining Bangladesh crowd who had kept the faith making more than enough noise to compensate for those who didn't, Mahmadullah and Shafiul saw them home with an over to spare with a partnership of 58.

The celebrations in the ground had an intensity I've never seen before, but even that was nothing compared with what we were to encounter outside the ground that night. As we tried to make our way along the wide road leading from the stadium to where (we hoped) our car was waiting about half a mile away, thousands, in fact certainly tens of thousands of singing, chanting, dancing locals streamed in the opposite direction, heading towards the stadium! They were waving flags, blowing whistles and horns, banging drums, and generally going crazy. Sometimes we were completely embroiled in the melee. They meant us no harm. When they spotted us, they only wanted to shake hands and say “good game,” but the sheer numbers meant that at times it was somewhat unnerving to say the least. A combination of police stationed at regular intervals and some ordinary locals eventually helped us get through to where we going, and thankfully our car was waiting as arranged. The journey back into the city was also an eventful one. On at least one occasion our car was completely surrounded by a huge crowd, banging on the doors and on the roof. Every road had a stream of vehicles and humanity heading for the vicinity of the ground on foot, or crammed into or onto any form of transport available to them for what promised to be the mother of all-night parties.

Seeing and experiencing the passion and how much it meant to so many people who have such tough, and all-too-often short lives was a truly humbling experience. I don't think I'm exaggerating or bending the truth when I say that disappointment was not something many of us felt that night, at least for very long, if at all, either. In fact, it was impossible not to share their joy.

Far from my trip into Bangladesh being a wasted journey (as some people might assume), it provided me with the single most full-on cricket-watching experience of my life, and the other members of the tiny English contingent I discussed it with after the game all felt the same way.

Everyone who has been to Bangladesh to watch cricket seems to come away with a special affection for the place, and I'm no exception. Even as I write this in an unspeakably grotty INR450 per night hotel room in Kolkata 3 days after the event, I'm still buzzing from the experience. The mosquitoes in the shower are buzzing, too!

Tomorrow I board the train to Chennai for the final leg of my journey back there from Chittagong, and the final chapter in my World Cup 2011 adventure. Let's hope it's not going to be the final chapter in England's World Cup!

Although it's another Day/Night match, dew is less likely to be a factor there. It wasn't dew that bowled 23 wides in Chittagong though, so let's hope that a rubbish England performance isn't a factor either.