England have gone. When will Middlesex?

Middlesex County Cricket Club have taken a similar stance to the ECB by not forcing any of it’s cricketers to travel to Mumbai for the inaugural Champions League Twenty 20.

Following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the competition was due to start on 3^rd December following a previous postponement in September, but along with England’s test series in India, everything has been put in jeopardy.

It seems that the decisions which are made by the Middlesex management and players are likely to mirror those made by their England counterparts.

Middlesex batsman Tom Nicoll has toured in Mumbai with school and County Academy sides: “the atmosphere is really friendly. It is important to differentiate between politics and the local people.”

However the politics holding back the tournament are primarily those within cricket. The Australian Cricket Board have already barred Essex from competing in the tournament due to their players competing in the rival competition, the Indian Premier League.

It is Nicoll’s generation that could be the key to success for Middlesex when this competition finally does take place. Players from his age group in the academy – Jack London and Billy Godleman were both on the field when their County clinched the Twenty20 Cup at the Rose Bowl in July.

“I have had a chat with Billy, and he was really looking forward to returning to Mumbai and still is. Neither he nor myself are really in a position to talk about what the County should do, but obviously we both want to be a part of it.”

However when Middlesex’s youngsters do eventually arrive in India they will be in for a culture shock: “The trains are worse than the tube and I have eaten curry three meals a day.” said the youngster.

That will not be the worst of their troubles however. Victoria, the Australian champions three years running will have a team containing the likes of heavy hitters Adrian Blizzard and Shaun Marsh.

Hopefully from Middlesex’s view point Owais Shah, Andrew Strauss and Alan Richardson will have already acclimatised as they are with an England contingent in Abu Dhabi.

Richardson in particular has been made part of a development squad and was in part selected due to the easiness of his visa application; he already possessed one needed for Middlesex’s tour.

Have the Mumbai Attacks Hit Indian Cricket's Soft Underbelly?

It is testament to the tour organizers and Security Chief Reg Dickason, that England’s tour of India is still going ahead.

Of course at the highest level of cricket, re-scheduling the test matches and training camps was never going to be an issue, as long as security wasn’t either.

During the winter it is easy to forget the rungs of the ladder which support the upper echelons of world cricket, but the Mumbai bombings have affected many other areas of the international game.

Sanjay Patel is a link between talented young cricketers from the South-East of England and The World Cricket Academy, a company that runs cricket academies all over the world, including Mumbai.

Even if these academies are given the go-ahead, tension in the area is still concerning some clients.

“The attacks in Mumbai have left many people, parents in particular, worried about the upcoming camps in December and January.”

WCA offers camps in Sri Lanka and Australia as well as India, so there are alternatives, but Patel explains that it isn’t that easy. The travel industry has already suffered from the current economic climate.

“We can’t afford to give people refunds, and even relocating some of the cricketers to other camps is either logistically impossible, or improbable because of costs.”

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Angst and paranoia is understandable, especially when considering that WCA caters for children as young as 11. Of course, the safety of anybody travelling abroad is paramount, but one has to look at the goal of the academy.

“Primarily, as far as the younger children are concerned, it is safety and enjoyment which we focus on.”

“However, when we start taking youth, county and international cricketers, we start looking beyond technique and start trying to integrate these guys into the whole sub-continental experience.”

England have failed countless times on the sub-continent with tour successes being described as ‘famous’ as opposed to habitual. England’s cricketers have not only been outclassed on the field but struggled off it as well with problems ranging from homesickness to food-poisoning have traditionally causing problems for English touring parties.

The ECB and 1^st class counties are doing their best to rectify this problem. Somerset sent promising cricketer Michael Wood and Hampshire have sent their U17 team to tour Mumbai in conjunction with the WCA.

Cork throws a spanner in the works

Dominic Cork has said there are "5 or 6" players ready to boycott the two-test tour of India. The first question to ask is, how does Cork know exactly what each singular player within the camp is thinking? One gets the impression that he has done his best to find out each players' stance purely to make a statement in the press. 

Cork was always the extrovert on the field, but his outlandishness in the public domain will be seen by many as a tarnish on his reputation.