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I admire your courage travelling in sleeper class. Being an Indian staying in US for 4 years, now its difficult for me to adjust to the sleeper class, its amazing how you managed.
I hope you have a good and enjoyable stay in India.

Phil, If police with a camera crew barged into your room in London, would you roll over and accept it and report it simply as an "unexpected distraction"? Journalists, especially foreign journalists, are in a unique position to highlight such routine violations of human rights by Indian police. I hope you further probe this and raise a big stink about it.

I went to watch the first day of the India-Australia Test in Delhi recently, and I would have to say the level of interest was actually very high, as I found the entire series to be within my Indian friends here (although the ground was not a sell-out as it sounds the England games have been).

One thing I would mention-we weren't allowed to take in any water, food, a camera or even a bag! Which can make things pretty tricky trying to leave them outside the ground somewhere. Coupled with the fact that the entire ground ran out of food and water by lunch and some of my mates couldn't get back in the ground after going out (even though they had their tickets), and you get an idea of the chaotic organisation of cricket matches in India.

I appreciate security was tight after the recent bomb blasts in India but surely depriving people of water and food at an all-day event is unacceptable!

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indianamerican,
And you think all that is relevant here because......??

Indianamerican; what is the need to do India bashing on this website ? what is the purpose ?? I left India like you in 1991 and am a Canadian Citizen now (by default took citizenship just 2 years ago) but I hate NRIs of flying off the handle just after spending few years abroad. Talking wrong things at the wrong place at the wrong time. The author is just sharing the experience while on cricket travel tour and not staying off the topic, but you talk of Indian police; politicians god knows what. I will just take the example of MS Dhoni whom you have tried to equate like the so called corrupt politicians of India. It appears that you have very little knowledge of what is going on since obviously you are not abreast of day to day things in India. Let me give you the background in right perspective. Firstly, MSD did not wanted to have GUn for some Rambo or Macho image because there were threats issued to his life. There were stones pelted on his house after Srilanka series and even after the loss at World Cup. For your information , MSD and Tendulkar both have been provided security cover not because they have asked for it but because of threats. Now in that kind of a scenario, anyone is bound to ask for Gun for self defense? Now here was the problem when MSD applied for aGun License. His approval application of holding firearm kept getting delayed due to typical bureaucracy and corruptions. When he enquired the reason for delay, the flimsy excuse was given that MSD needs to provide a character certificate which everyone does have to provide, but for his busy travel schedule and for making him more embarrassed. That is when he complained to the authorities who intervened and waived the character certificate for a perosn of Dhoni's stature. It is important to understand that about more than a year ago; Dhoni was stopped driving thye car and harrassed for papers. All the police guy wanted was cheap publicity. Now you know what is going on.
Next time before you fly off the rocker get your facts straight.
Cheers to Indian team.

Want to add for americanindian,

last week there were fresh threats issued to Tendulkar by some Al Qaida or Terrorist organisation if you are not aware. Do these popular cricketers have no right for their personal freedom and privacy? Any stupid guy could come and shoot him, then same people like you will blame the Indian government as to what was government doing ? What happens if by chance, just by chance, someone shoots a prominent Indian criketer? There will be riots in India beyond the control of government. Hence out of no choice the government has to provide security cover to these cricketers. One should sympathise with them instead of criticising them. Why should there be a delay in providing an approval for possesing firearm to any citizen of India who has been given umpteen life threats and whose houses are stoned everytime India performs poorly. Who is at fault here ? The cricketer or crazy people??

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Seems like you are following Matthew Hayden. He said Australia lost test matches becuase of distractions leading to slow over rate. What a fine excuse for loss! And what a fine example you have managed to copy due to KP boys are failing. I would sugegst all Australians and English players to go and take a 'Strategy 101' class to get smart and stop blaming. Cheers.

Interesting article Phil. As a British Indian (NRI) I really would love to do what your doing, however, with a wife and kids, its very difficult to even get a cheeky one in at the local.

Of the times I have been to India though I have discovered there is no equilibrium. We usually stay in a remote village in Gujarat and to be honest most people don't give a monkeys about the cricket.

Very different to Mumbai and other bigger cities. The interest in cricket in the bigger cities is helped by the fact some of the stars were born there. For example certain S.R. Tendulkar was born in Mumbai. Similaraly to Delhi where Yuvraj and Sehwag are from, Ganguly from Calcutta etc. The fans from these cities are passionate and know a thing or two.

I think some NRI's are missing the point of this blog. Its about experiences and not about politics....

Enjoy the rest of the tour and you never know, with the wedding season in full flow you might still be winner !!!

I read Jonathan Agnew's comments about the 3rd ODI at Kanpur against India with interest. His observation that another international match, featuring some of the world's best cricketers was spouilt because of the D/L rules is rather funny. Since when have the current England palyers been included in " among yhe best in the world " ? Some of them like Flintoff, Colingwood, Ian Bell are living a charmed life based on their past performance. They all are " past Sell by date ". England need to appreciate this and plan accordingly for the future. They have a captain by default and not on merits. His knowledge about captaincy is almost as good as that of the captains of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe,a nd that is a compliment. He needs to be understudy of a good captain like Vaughn for atleast 2 more years. I am afraid this England team needs to be bracketed with Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the current West Indies team who all need to be put in another Group like Group B !!!

As an England fan I'm frustrated at how the selectors fail to take their strongest team to the sub-continent. The ECB felt it was a great idea to send Monty to India to learn and feel the art of spin on Indian soil, and yet they fail to select him for the ODI's. Arguably the best spin bowler in the UK, a match winner as proven against Australia, and someone who can spin the ball better than Yuvraj and Sehwag (who have taken many English scalps so far in the 3 ODI's). In the 2nd ODI, 8 wickets were taken by the Indian spinners. Everyone in the country is aware of the boost Monty brings to the squad, especially when he takes a wicket. Before most of you come back about Monty's batting and fielding - he has proved to have made significant improvements in both of these areas and I can name a number of current players in the squad who have made significant errors in the field and failed to score with the bat. However, select Monty for his wicket taking prowess.

England skipper not too happy with the decision to stop the game in fading light.

And everyone seeming to support this and being up in arms about the decision.

Let's look at the fact shall we? England all out for 243 -India were on 198-5 with the Indian captain and a hard hitter (Pathan) at the crease they needed 43 runs with 9 overs to go and with 5 wickets in hand - India were comfortably scoring at a rate of 4.95 the required rate was 4.77 per over.

Yes I can see how Pietrersen would be miffed at the game being stopped because England were really in a good position to win otherwise wern't they?????

Please do me a favour- smell the coffee

It was a fair result - deal with it...

bt0102uk

You need to smell the coffee yourself... Yes India were favourites to win but England were denied the opportunity to win by fading light and poor use of the time available by match officials.

In cricket anything can happen... if you knew anything about cricket you'd know that.

TO LOCOHERO

Did you by chance read by full message?

9 overs to go 43 runs needed 5 wickets in hand 2 hard hitters at crease - one of them the captain.

Yeah sure england could have won....

do me a favour- wake up

India could have wrapped up in 4-5 overs if things had gone on.

Given the events that have happened since it was posted, having the headline of this article still on the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Cricket homepage isn't exactly in the best taste.

The team for the first test in 'Wales'?
The ones with the biggest wellies!
What a stupid place to play "test" cricket.
Even rugby is played under a closed roof!
Call it off now and let's have a proper 'English' series; no doubt it will still rain.