From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Gooch and Co. have fun with Indian Railway....
Date: 26 Jan 93 16:46:25 GMT

ENGLAND FACE MORE TRAVEL TROUBLE

Mark Baldwin, Press Association Cricket Reporter writes from Cuttack


     England's  angry cricketers  are preparing  themselves for a
gruelling  nine-hour overnight rail  journey just days before the
first Test against India.  The  cancellation  of their  scheduled
flight  to Calcutta  tomorrow evening - and a total lack of assis-
tance from the  Indian Cricket Board - have  left England fending
for themselves.  Tour manager Bob Bennett spent  all today making
arrangements for the team to sleep on the overnight train leaving
Bhubaneswar  for  Calcutta  at 8.20pm  tomorrow night.  But  team
manager Keith  Feltcher said :"It'a a bloody  nuisance. "India is
too big a country for us  to have to keep getting  about by train,
and a night on  the train is not exactly ideal  preparation for a
Test match." Bennett  said: "We have  booked the overnight  train
because we want to get into  Calcutta as soon as  possible so the
players can have a day off on Tuesday." And Fletcher added :"It's
important the  players get a day's  rest.  We've had a tough sche-
dule recently and I want  them to relax first  before we have two
full practice days before the Test  starts on  Friday." 

     England's  players  are  getting  fed  up  with  last minute
changes to theer travel itinerary.  The last ten days have been a
test of endurance for them - and one  they should not have had to
put up with.  Admittedly, there is a partial pilots' strike  that
is badly affecting  domestic flights in India.  But yesterday Eng-
land suddenly discovered that tomorrow night's flight to Calcutta
had disappeared off the schedule.  The same thing happened in the
previous match at Chandigarh where  England's players had to make
a return  train journey from  Delhi to get to the  second one-day
international.  Last  Saturday their flight  from Delhi to Jaipur,
where Monday's first one-day international was  played, was badly
delayed.  And the return  flight to Delhi, on the  evening of the
match, was another  much-delayed journey.  For the current three-
day match at Cuttack England's  players have had a two and a half
hour round trip by coach from their  Bhubaneswar hotel.  The last
ten days have  been full of late  night travel and  early morning
starts.  But now Graham Gooch's squad are facing  the possibly of
a  sleepless night  on a train  which  reportedly  has 'dormitory
style' accommodation.  And, even  if  they do  sleep, the  5.30am
arrival  time in  Calcutta on  Tuesday  morning  will  take  some
getting over.  

     What makes the England team's current  travel  problem worse
is that Sky Television  equipment and  technical staff  are being
flown around  India on a  specially-chartered  Indian  Air  Force
plane.  Bennett  said that  there had  not been  enough  time  to
charter a  plane for  tomorrow's trip to Calcutta, and he added :
"If I start complaining  it wil get  through to  the players, too,
and we want to keep them concentrating on their job.  "We have to
get on with it day-to-day and  just  do the  best  we can in  the
circumstances. Things are always unpredictable in India." But the
Indian  cricket  authorities  should long ago  have  organised  a
specially chartered plane  for the England team.  At the start of
the  tour, a  month ago, Madhavrao  Scindia, the  Indian  Cricket
Board  President, gave  England  his  assurance  that the  pilots' 
strike  would not  be allowed  to interrupt  their scheduled  air
travel plans. But a fortnight ago Scindia resigned his government
post as Minister for Aviation - and since then the Indian Cricket
Board has been  conspicuous only by it's lack  of help.  Test and
County Cricket  Board  officials  at Lord's  are likely to  leave
Bennett, their man on the spot, to  fight any battles.  But chief
executive Alan Smith said: "The itinerary is geared to air travel
and if anything interferes  with that  then it is clearly unsatis-
factory. If Bob wants us to try to put any pressure on the Indian
Board  then we will."  All the travel problems encountered by Eng-
land could  have a bearing  on the joint India-Pakistan-Sri Lanka 
application to  stage the  1995 World Cup.  England are the other
candidates  and a  decision is due  to be made at the  February 2
International Cricket Council meeting at Lord's.

===

Travel problem in India is  not a "news".  A game in Jamshedpur
was delayed once.  Well, the truck which carried the equipments
did not reach in time.

BCCI should charter some bullock-carts for WC 1995!


Vicky:
UMass, Jan 26