by 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 ***y 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