By Gary Millis, ICT tour manager
I arrived in Barbados eight days ago, and was immediately greeted by the sort of unsettled weather which had an effect in the last World Cup in Australia.
Monday was a rest day, with most of the International Cricket Tours tourists taking advantage of the pool before early-evening beers down the Gap before dinner.
The following day was the eagerly awaited England v Scotland game. ICT are travel partners of Cricket Scotland for this tournament, and is has been a different experience to have so many Scots with us. It has certainly made it a lively tour to date.
Unfortunately for all of us, the fixture was abandoned due to rain, after Scotland left England 109 runs to get in 10 overs. Apparently the England camp was confident of knocking them off, but after what we all witnessed in India, we seem to be a side on the decline.
England in bother
Scotland then beat Namibia, and the Scots with us sang their hearts out all the way back to the hotel. It’s hard to see the same thing happening among the travelling England contingent?
On Friday we held a special ICT event at the Copacabana: a beautiful venue right on the beach at Carlisle Bay, where we have held numerous events down the years. I am sure we will be back.
Our guests were Don Topley and the cricket journalist Mel Farrell. Don gave us an insight on his time as coach with Zimbabwe, and a victory against England.
Topley tales
But the best story was about Don the 18-year-old pro at MCC. On this particular day, England were playing West Indies at Lord’s, and Don was selling scorecards by the Grace Gate.
As England suffered an injury, a message got to Don to go to the dressing room where he was met by Peter May, who asked him to put his kit on and field.
Don’s kit was worn so he dashed to the shop and borrowed new whites to play in before returning it later.
He had only been on the pitch a matter of minutes when the great Malcolm Marshall hooked square to the boundary, and Don took an outstanding one-handed catch, in his opinion the best of all time, but unfortunately stepped on the boundary rope in doing so.
The following day was the big clash with the Aussies. All I will say I was very surprised by the selection. I thought Reece Topley and Sam Curran should had played; Sam is equally as good with the bat and would had strengthened our attack. England were always behind the run rate, and lost by 36 runs.
We now head to Antigua where England have it all to do the make the Super 8s.
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