Cricket World Cup 2011...and some other stuff!


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Asia » India
April 8th 2011
Published: April 8th 2011
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WARNING: this blog contains much to do with cricket. If you don't like cricket or don't understand it, you may not enjoy this read. However, I have tried to pad it out with as much banter as possible!

Me, Bear and Mikey were all looking forward to leaving Kolkata and getting to Nagpur, where England were due to play their first group game of the Cricket World Cup against the Netherlands. What we weren’t looking forward to, was the 18 hour train ride which was due to leave at 23:00 on the 20th Feb. We allowed ourselves an hour to get to the train station, work out what platform our train was leaving from and pick up some snacks for the journey. Our train wasn’t displayed on the board and were told it was leaving from another platform in another part of the station, a 5 minute walk away. There was still no sign of our train, so I asked at the information desk, to be informed that it had been delayed - by 6 hours - and would leave at 05:00 the following morning! Wonderful! Not the start we were after, but nothing we could do about it, so found a seat in the waiting room and got chatting to a chap who had just been to the opening ceremony of the competition and first game of the tournament in Bangladesh with his young son. Virender had interjected into a slight altercation Mikey was having with a bloke who was obviously slightly inebriated and was making Mike’s life slightly difficult. The pissed bloke disappeared and Virender apologised on his behalf, which he didn’t need too, but helped getting the conversation started. The ironic thing is that’s it’s usually Mikey playing the part of the pissed bloke…minus the grief giving!

Virender’s English was excellent and he told us that his son had won a competition to walk out with the players at the beginning of the opening game. He showed us his photos and it was obvious he was a very proud Dad. He also said that he worked for the main sponsor of the World Cup and would try and arrange some tickets for us, which was a really nice gesture. It was refreshing to meet a local with such excellent English, who gave us some very helpful advice and who was as interested in us as we were in him.

You can imagine how much there is to do at an Indian train station between the hours of 23:00 and 05:00 in the morning, but I wasn’t going to chance going to sleep, only to wake up and find out I had been relieved of my personal possessions! I managed to get a decent amount of sleep on the train, but we still didn’t arrive in Nagpur until 02:00 on the 22nd, a full 28 hours after we were supposed to leave Kolkata. After eventually checking into some accommodation, we got a limited amount of shut eye before having to be up for the match.

The game should have been a comfortable opener for England and we were initially disappointed that the Netherlands had won the toss and had elected to bat. This potentially meant that the Netherlands would be bowled out cheaply, England would chase them down comfortably, the game would be over very quickly and we would be back in the pub much sooner than expected. That is usually a desired outcome, but I’m here to watch the cricket and was hoping for a good game that goes the distance. A combination of poor bowling, poor fielding and good batting meant that the Netherlands posted a total of 297, which is probably 100 runs more than any of us expected and meant that an early upset was well on the cards. It also meant that England actually had to concentrate to chase down the score, but would provide good opportunities for our batsman to get some runs under their belts. We chased it without too many scares, securing a comfortable and needed victory to get us on our way!

3 days later we were back at the same ground, this time watching Australia take on New Zealand. With Mike being a kiwi and my serious dislike of anything to do with Australian sport, it was a no brainer as to who we would be supporting. I was an honorary kiwi for the day and was really looking forward to seeing an upset. Australia were clear favourites and dismissed NZ for 206, a total far short of being competitive against the fire power that the Aussies possess. They knocked them off with the same amount of ease, albeit with a couple of slip ups. Not a good start for NZ and a disappointed Mikey Bear! What made up for it - slightly - was finding out where the players were staying in Nagpur and along with a group of Aussies we had been chatting to, headed to their hotel for a few beers. We walked into the bar to find a mixture of Aussie and Kiwi supporters, along with a handful of players from both teams. We got chatting to Jessie Ryder who is a renowned piss head and top bloke - very down to earth and normal. Brett Lee and Jason Krezja were passing the guitar between themselves, knocking out typically Australian songs to the handful of people who would listen, whilst Steve Smith, the McCullum brothers and a couple of others happily mingled with Joe Public, happy to talk and have a few drinks. We got chatting to an Aussie fella called Drew who works within media circles in Australia. He was a top lad and easy to get on with and transpires that he actually works alongside a girl I met and travelled with in Colombia and later stayed with in Sydney. Small world!

Next morning we arrived at the airport, complete with hangover, to find out our 08:00 flight to Mumbai had been delayed by 5 hours! Hungover and delayed, nice combination! I found a nice patch of terminal floor, used my sleeping bag as a pillow and recovered some of the shut eye I had needlessly missed out on. Although our final destination was Bangalore, we had to transfer through Mumbai and a lot of people were taking that option, including ex England captain Mike Atherton. He looked as though he had had as big a night as we had and was equally as pissed off with having to wait around. We arrived in Mumbai, transferred immediately to our waiting plane, took off and arrived in Bangalore a little over an hour later. On arrival our plan was simple. Check into a hotel and then head to the Hard Rock Café there, which we had been told that they serve up a mean burger. The 3 of us had not eaten meat in 4 weeks and were all craving something bloody and protein filled! It didn’t disappoint, although was an effort to eat the second half, a statement you wouldn’t have heard from me a year ago!

The reason for flying to Bangalore was to try
Bear...Bear...Bear...

...and his harem of Indians. Looking happy as usual...very tolerant
and obtain tickets for the India v England game that had been moved from Kolkata. We knew we had no chance of legally buying them, so got up early and headed to the ground, in the hope that an unscrupulous Indian would be happy to part with his hard earned ticket for a sum of money way above the face value of said ticket. For any cricket lover, seeing their national team play against the host nation in a World Cup would be a dream come true, but against India in India, where cricket is a religions, that’s another level and I was prepared to part with a decent amount of money to see it. We were approached by a few people who had tickets to sell and I wasn’t too bothered about securing a bargain or wait until the last minute - I just wanted a ticket in hand that would allow me into the ground and to be part of a bit of history. We ended up paying 4,500 rupees for tickets that had a face value of just 200 rupees (the equivalent of £60 for a £2.75 ticket) or a 2,250% increase. Nice work if you can
Aus v NZAus v NZAus v NZ

Honouring those who died in the Christchurch earthquake
get it! Either way, he was happy and so were we!

When we got into the ground, it was soon evident why the seats were originally only 200 rupees. We didn’t actually have a seat, but had to cram our backsides in alongside the thousands of Indians already in there on the concrete. We originally had a poor view, but after a bit of tactical pushing, shoving and showing willingness to partake in some photos, we had positioned ourselves rather well and all were amazed by the sight of the ground, full of passionate Indians! Even 45 minutes before the start, the atmosphere was electric. Looking around, we were six of about 20 white faces in a section containing circa four thousand. It was really exciting, the noise was off the scale and I was so glad to be part of it. It wasn’t at all intimidating…well, not until a bit later on.

India won the toss and batted first, which was to be expected and was the first time I realised the enormity of Sachin Tendulkar, one of India’s opening batsmen. He has been playing for India since he was 16 and almost 22 years later, is still at the top of his game and arguably the best batsman the world has ever seen. To say he has Godlike status in India would be an understatement! Whenever his face appears on screen, his name is mentioned, he scores a run or touches the ball, there is an enormous cheer around the ground. If he fields close to the boundary (near the supporters), there is a rush of people down to the fence, just to be that much closer to him. To us, it is completely laughable and nobody would ever be worshipped so highly, regardless of how good they are…they are more likely to have the piss taken out of them, although I guess that is just one of the many areas where our cultures differ!

India batted very well, although we bowled poorly and amassed a total of 338, which is usually more than enough to win a cricket match. Sachin Tendulkar scored a brilliant century which I am thrilled to have seen, even though it was likely we would be heading for defeat. The Indians in our section were, as expected, completely buoyant and were already letting us know we would lose the game. Our run chase started off extremely well, with both Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pieterson exploding out of the blocks. Runs were being scored freely and things were looking very good, until KP was caught and bowled by a very lucky catch. Jonathan Trott continued where he had led off against the Netherlands and England captain, Andrew Strauss scored an even more impressive century (158) before getting out at a crucial time. Until then we had looked as though we would win the game, and win it easily, prompting many Indians to actually leave the ground. Mikey and I started having things thrown at us, albeit paper cups and crisp wrappers and every time we got up to cheer a shot we were shouted at to sit down. It made us laugh more than anything, although the closer we got to the total, the more intimidating the atmosphere became. Without sounding like a dickhead who likes fighting - I‘m a lover, not a fighter - I’d quite fancy my chances against two Indian’s, three at a push, but two against 4,000 is unfair odds in anyone’s language and it was hard to decide on how to behave! Cricket is supposed to
Me & 2 Indian's...Me & 2 Indian's...Me & 2 Indian's...

...at the game in Bangalore
be a gentleman’s game, but the Indian crowd are so partisan (and volatile) that we didn’t know what to expect.

India took a few quick wickets and the balance swung back firmly in their favour, especially when we required 14 runs from the last over (6 balls), which is a very tough ask. Graeme Swann scored three runs from the first two balls, before Ajmal Shahzad smashed 6 runs from the third ball. That hit brought us right back into it. I went mental and the Indians went mental…though for completely opposing reasons. A single was taken from the next ball , meant that four was required from two balls to win the match, Graeme Swann on strike. I was confident. He scored two from the fifth ball but only managed one run from the final delivery, denying England the most famous of victories but ensuring a tie (which rarely happens in cricket) and more importantly our safety! The Indian’s were only too happy to shake our hands and congratulate us on a good game, although I’m not sure how sporting they would have been had we won! It will be a game that goes down in World Cup
England v IndiaEngland v IndiaEngland v India

What an atmosphere
history and will be remembered for all the right reasons. I had just experienced eight hours of non-stop entertainment and for £60, consider that an absolute bargain!

The day was rounded off with a few beers in an underground dungeon - the only place we could get a drink - where the staff were continuously on the lookout for police. It was just another surreal experience…just another day in India!

We stayed in Bangalore for the next few days because England were playing Ireland on the 2nd March. We caught up on some admin and watched the other matches that were being played on TV. We probably could have used our time more productively and ventured out to see ‘things’, but I hadn’t heard of anything life changing to see in Bangalore and was more than happy wasting the days watching something that interests me, as opposed to ticking boxes of things that don’t.

The Ireland game was another game that will go down in history, although from an England perspective for all the wrong reasons. We batted first and scored 327 which would definitely be considered a winning total, especially against a minnow like Ireland, who
England v IndiaEngland v IndiaEngland v India

Nutty crowd
have only recently become slightly competitive at cricket. Long story short, one of their batsman had a dream day, batted out of his skin and found the middle of the bat with every shot. He batted very well, scored a memorable hundred and led his team to victory. I don’t think any English fan had envisioned that happening, but fair play to them, they deserved it and was incredible to see live. With games this close, I struggle how anyone can ever call cricket boring! As for England, hopefully the result woke them up a bit and for us to go anywhere in the competition, we couldn’t afford any more slip ups!

We were back on the train on the 3rd March and squeezed onto a bench seat for the 6 hour journey to Chennai. The train is divided into different sections and a cost is attributed accordingly. For anybody reading this and considering travelling India, do not go any lower than the Sleeper AC 3 class, which is fine and comfortable and you have your own bed. The difference in cost is marginal, the difference in comfort isn’t! I had booked the class below this and had to
Sachin TendulkarSachin TendulkarSachin Tendulkar

The 'Little Master'
spend the next 6 hours cramped, grumpy and with an even numbing bum! Looking across at Mikey, his expression said it all. He was not a happy bunny either and looked exactly how I felt!

Chennai we had read has very little to offer, so we disembarked not overly enthused about being there. We checked into a guesthouse that was cheap, but with 3 blokes in a tiny room, not overly comfortable. The next England game was on the 6th, but the reason to get there earlier was because one of my best mates from home, Nath, was arriving on the 4th. The last time I had seen him was in February last year, at Carnival in Brazil, which was amazing and since then, he has spent the majority of his time working in Australia and has no plans to be back in the UK for the next couple of years. Nath is not only a great mate, but has an infectious personality, is always happy and always up for a laugh. He loves the attention without being arrogant and has a manner about him that people automatically warm too. He is slightly more unconventional than most and has his own style that only he could pull off. My sister describes him as a sexy tramp, which I think is a pretty good description…apart from the sexy bit! I went with Mikey to the airport as he was flying to Sri Lanka for a couple of days to get around a visa issue preventing him being in India for more than 30 days and waited for the long haired blonde to walk through. Like most good looking blondes I know, he kept me waiting for a bit longer than I had hoped, but the wait was worth it. We both just cracked up at the others appearance, had a cuddle and then fell into conversation about random subjects, as though the last year apart had not happened…the way it should be with proper mates!

The only plan for that night was to find a beer, which in India does prove difficult at times. We looked at our options and headed to another part of town, to find the bar 10 Downing Street. The 3 of us walked up to the door, only for the bouncer to inform us that entry was only permitted for couples. There were the obvious jokes insisting we were a couple…plus one; but even after explaining that all we wanted to do was have some food, a few beers, watch the cricket and essentially put money towards their weekly profit margin, he was still not having it. So it’s a Friday night and you can only go into bars in couples…I’m not sure how well that would go down in Southend! This place really is hard work at times!

We were pointed in the direction of a 5 star hotel - the GRT Grand - and resigned to the fact that it was probably our only hope for a beer, went inside to the bar, no questions asked. We were promptly served with a refreshing beverage and on inspection of the price, realised that there was room for 5 star lager in our budget! The food was reasonable too and we parked ourselves down, had a lovely meal and a good night…sometimes things do work here!

Mikey returned to our room at about 07:30 on the morning of the 6th looking like he hadn’t slept all night! We questioned his activity during the last 36 hours and it transpired that he had
England v IndiaEngland v IndiaEngland v India

They all want to be friends...after the game
not had much sleep since landing in Sri Lanka. He explained that after checking into an exclusive hotel, his first night had been occupied by a young lady named…erm…Bizzo, who resided in either Sweden or Switzerland…or somewhere like that, whilst the second night (after a day at the Sri Lanka v Australia game) had been taken up getting drunk with the players in the hotel next door, before having to leave for the airport to come and rejoin the lower classes back in India. He really has a tough life does our Mikey…it must be a real struggle!

After a shower he was recharged and soon after were in the ground and looking forward to the game against South Africa, a game that I/we were expecting to lose. South Africa are a strong outfit at the moment and serious contenders for the World Cup, but cricket is a funny old game at times and anything is possible on the day. We batted first and were quickly 3 wickets down for not very many runs and the four of us were seriously thinking about being completely humiliated. Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara batted sensibly and steadied the ship and we
Mikey...Mikey...Mikey...

...drinking in the dungeon
managed to post a semi reasonable total of 171, which should be easily attainable, especially for a team with the quality of batting SA have. They passed 100 runs for the loss of 2 wickets and looked to be cruising to an easy victory, however a flurry of middle order wickets instilled some hope in the English bowlers…and the English fans in the crowd. Mikey had even managed to wake up at this point after somehow grabbing 40 winks in amongst the noisy Indian’s, no doubt dreaming about his dalliance 36 hours earlier!

Even with 2 wickets still left to take, it looked likely that SA would sneak the win, but Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson took some vital wickets, with the former wrapping things up proceedings with SA needing only 6 more runs to win. The celebrations on the field were replicated in the stands. I went mental, Nath went mental, Mikey looked pleased and Bear did his best to film it, although it was an effort with two 6 foot lumps jumping on him. It was a complete emotional rollercoaster and we had somehow managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It had been an awesome comeback and yet another amazing game to witness live, however these close finishes really aren’t too good for stress levels…I’m supposed to be on holiday after all! The only thing left to do was to find a bar and knock the top off a couple of coldies. We succeeded!

After the euphoria of the day before, we were up surprisingly early and heading to the bus station to try and catch a bus down the coast to the quiet coastal town of Mamalaparam, 2 hours away. We needed to be back in Chennai about 10 days later and thought we would break up the time by seeing a couple of extra places and hopefully getting some time on the beach to relax and chill out. Mamalaparam was fine for this; the best thing about it was the lack of noise. For the first time in 5 weeks we could actually hear nothing - no screaming, no sirens, no music and no horn - perfect! We had a stroll along the beach and quickly established that we would be sharing the sand with cows, fishermen, stray dogs and washed up dead fish. Hardly paradise, but the beach did get a bit cleaner about 1km away and we booked a spot for the following day. That night we did a mini bar crawl - not by choice - but because all the bars only seemed to have four beers in stock. Divide those four beers by the four in our party and you quickly deplete them of their stock! It was more annoying than amusing, as all we wanted to do was have a meal with a few beers overlooking the water, but ended up having to call it a night much earlier than anticipated.

There are two types of beer in India; premium and super strength (8%). We’ve had to resort to the super strength a few times, but it really does knock you around. It has the same effects of drinking Stella at home - its fighting juice and gives you a shocking headache - and I don’t like fighting or headaches! I think the Indians drink as much as they can in a short space of time, get hammered, fall over and go home. Oh how our cultures differ!

So we spent the next day on the beach playing cricket, lobbing a tennis ball about, swimming and listening to music. It was good to be back by the ocean, but I hoped that India has better beaches to offer than that one. We stayed for three nights and the rest of the time was spent watching the cricket with NZ securing a shock victory over Pakistan and virtually guaranteeing their place in the quarter finals, much to Mikey’s delight. We headed another couple of hours down to Pondicherry, which was the capital of the French rule, when they occupied territory here way back when. I’m not a massive lover of the French, but I have to admire the legacy that they have left in Pondy! There are bakeries and fine restaurants galore, which meant cakes, baguettes, decent coffee and exceptional evening meals - a good place to hole up for a few days. We walked the promenade and had a walk around town, which didn’t take too long and got increasingly more uncomfortable during the heat of the day. We arrived the day before England’s game with Bangladesh and did a reccy into which establishment would best suit our needs the following day. We found a restaurant - Bamboo - who said they would sit us in front of the TV and provide ice cold beer and decent food for as long as we wanted. Sold!

True to our word and complete with flag, we set out our stall in front of the TV and enjoyed the service of Sammy and his team for the day. The food was really excellent and the beer was equally pleasing. What was happening on the TV was the only thing spoiling the day and in a game that England should have won comfortably, we managed to lose to Bangladesh in calamitous fashion. To say it was embarrassing would do Bangladesh a disservice, but we really should be beating teams like them and doing so comfortably. It made the win over SA even more crucial too, although it meant we still needed to beat the West Indies back in Chennai, as well as have other results go our way. Typical England!

To say we were poor tourists here would be right. We managed to get to two beaches - one ironically named Paradise Beach, which although was quite nice and I enjoyed chilling out and listening to music, it was far from the beaches of South America or even SE Asia. The next beach we tried a couple of days later was Serenity Beach, a 15 minute auto-rickshaw ride in the opposite direction. The first thing we saw upon walking onto the beach was a man dropping anchor at poo harbour in the shallows of the sea - a sight that nobody really expects or wants to have to endure. We then walked past a washed up dead dog that had had the flesh from around its skull eaten away…but nowhere else, before again walking into another man defecating on the sand! It really was a disastrous and disgusting 20 minutes and if the others had wanted to get a ride back to the hotel, I would have been first in line! We eventually found a patch of sand appropriate for our needs, alongside a few other white faces, something we don’t usually encounter. We stayed for maybe a couple of hours, but it was a real disappointment and for obvious reasons, nobody fancied a dip in the sea…or seafood for dinner that evening. Serenity Beach, you’re having a laugh!

Whilst in the area, we went to a place called Aureville, which is marketed as a hippy commune near to Serenity Beach. I knew nothing about the place and wasn’t particularly fussed about going, but the LP recommended it and the others wanted to go (more for the novelty value than anything else). I had no idea what to expect, but imagined a bunch of soap dodging pot smokers sitting around their tepee practicing free love and avoiding paying tax for as long as they can. I have never really understood this way of living, but if I ever fancy a few days getting off my nut and shagging random women underneath the canvas, I’m pretty sure I’ll be heading to Glastonbury, long before I head back to Aureville. In reality (and to be fair) it wasn’t anything like my imagination; in fact I don’t recall seeing anybody other than other tourists who had come for the same reason. The Aureville community practice ’human unity’ (equal living), living alongside each other in harmony, governed by no rules, no religion and no politics. You can go and be part of the community for as little as a few days, with the main idea that you ‘concentrate’ hard on believing and being part of this new found way of life. There is what looks like a giant gold golf ball at the centre of the community - in the middle of a field - where the best concentration takes place. We met a lovely girl, Elle, who went there to try the experience and lasted all of a couple of days. She said that you first enter the golf ball in a single file line - talking very much prohibited - and then just sit and concentrate. Even writing about it feels weird and I’m struggling to find the words to describe what is plainly in my opinion just a complete load of bollocks! Lets move on!

We left Pondy and headed back to Chennai where we witnessed another epic match between England and the West Indies. It was a game we needed to win in order to qualify for the next round and the West Indies are a team that England are more than capable of beating. Having said that, and from everything else that had happened up until that point, we knew we would make hard work of it…and that we did. We batted first and lost a couple of quick wickets before the Jonathon
Nath...Nath...Nath...

...with his cake in Pondy
Trott steadied things…again…and we posted a defendable total of 243. Chris Gayle, the West Indies opening batsman came out and started hitting the ball to all parts of the ground and he was single handily chasing down our total very quickly. Thankfully he was dismissed for 43 and along with a couple of quick wickets, the game began to swing back in our favour, before Andre Russell smashed 49 and put them well on course for victory. The tension in the stand was unbearable and I honestly thought we had ridden our luck that little bit too far. I’ve never really had the chance to pull my hair out before, but it was coming out in clumps. Nath’s face told a thousand stories - the banter had dried up - all England supporters around us looked to be in the same state. It was agony, tense, exciting and intolerable all at the same time and just when it looked as though the Windies were going to win it, James Tredwell picked up the important wicket of Russell. Roach then came to the crease and played an inexplicably horrid shot to depart for 0, which left England requiring one wicket for
Mikey...Mikey...Mikey...

...hates eating that one!
victory and they needing 20 runs. We were in prime position at this point and when Suliemen Benn turned for a second run that was never there, Matt Prior removed the bails to run him out and England had scraped through by the skin of their teeth! The celebrations were more of relief than anything else and for me personally, wasn’t as satisfying as the South Africa result, which was a game I had expected to lose. The surrounding Indians were laughing at us, due to the differing emotions they had obviously seen us going through, but it was pleasing to know we had done all we could to guarantee our place in the next stage of the competition, albeit the hard way. That left only one thing to do - find a pub and have a beer!

We decided to hang on in Chennai as India were playing the West Indies two days later and we were hoping to blag tickets for that. Nath hadn’t seen an India game as yet and rightly wanted to be able to say that he had seen them in their own country. All tickets had officially sold out - no surprise there - but we were confident that ‘acquiring’ some wouldn’t be too much of a problem. We killed the next two days by watching more cricket - we are very basic humans - seeing the Kiwi‘s lose convincingly to Sri Lanka on the Friday and then spent the whole day Saturday back in the GRT Grand hotel, where South Africa destroyed Bangladesh to assure England‘s place in the next round and Pakistan humiliated Australia, which is always nice to see! We made friends with an English couple - Holly and Mark - who we had met down in Pondy and another girl Elle, who came across as quite quiet, but came loaded with quick wit and dry humour. The late night lack of drinking establishments meant we had to stock up during the day and then congregate in someone’s room after hours. I never envisaged seven grown adults have to resort to drinking warm rum and cokes or vodka and lemonades at 02:00 in the morning in a room meant for two people, but needs must and we did have a laugh.

We all had breakfast together the next day, in the only restaurant we had all been to -
Sleeping BeautySleeping BeautySleeping Beauty

The old man needs 40 winks every now and again
why change a winning formula? - and headed down towards the ground to look for tickets. There was a massive buzz around the place and you could already see the ground filling up from where we were. It wasn’t long before we were offered tickets and ended up getting six in the same stand, only having to pay 50% mark up…3,000 rupees for a 2,000 rupee ticket, which we all agreed was actually good value. The seats were very good, high up in the stand giving an excellent perspective of the ground. We were also sitting with - and any Indian reading this, please don’t be too offended - the more mature, higher class of society, which was great for us as the number of photo requests was seriously reduced, the crazy immature behaviour virtually non existent and the bloke behind me did not look like the sort of chap who would enjoy blowing a horn in my ear for the next eight hours. The guy in front of Nath and I however, had obviously just bought the new iPhone and was trying out the camera function where he can take self portraits…with us clearly in it. It was so obvious what he was doing - we could see - so Nath and I tried as many poses as possible that he would not necessarily be happy about - sticking our fingers up, picking our nose, moving out of the way just as he was about to take the photo - all very mature I know, but it gets so bloody annoying. Yes mate, we have white faces and long hair - if you want a photo, just ask! You mate, you have a brown face, a furry slug over your top lip and waggle your head from side to side with a daft grin on your chops. Do I want a sneaky photo of you? No ta. India…a unique place! I digress. The game was pretty good and India ended up winning convincingly by 80 runs, which was what we had all wanted to see. That was likely to be our last live game of the World Cup and I was over the moon to say I had seen seven of the group games. If England were to get to the final I would have gone to Mumbai to try for a ticket…but after our performances in the group
The Gold Golf Ball...The Gold Golf Ball...The Gold Golf Ball...

...concentrate now
stage, the final looked very unlikely! This also signalled the last couple of weeks of my trip, so it was on a train the next evening - 21st March - and off to Goa, the tourist hotspot in India, for some beach action, good food, people and normality! Bring it on…




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Tot: 0.244s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 9; qc: 62; dbt: 0.1589s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb