Manchester

Test cricket

Greater Manchester

India vs England: KL Rahul’s slip catching has contributed immensely to Indian bowlers’ success in the series KL’s slip catching has contributed immensely to Indian bowlers’ success in the series.

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BCCI staff to get increments this week The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has disclosed that the appraisal process of the 100-odd Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) staff will be complete this week and the employees will be handed their increments and promotion letters

Wasim Jaffer bats during a game between Walshaw, the club he represents, and Stretford in the Greater Manchester Cricket League Division 1

Urge to keep batting has brought the Mumbai legend to this small club on’s outskirts.The shortest walking route to Stretford Cricket Club -- on the outskirts of Manchester -- from the local tram station is a dirt track through a massive park.A couple of minutes on the narrow path, and you realise this is more woodland than park. Dry grass at least two feet long on either side. Not a soul in sight. At a few places, you have to part low-hanging branches of trees to make your way through. About midway, you realise the longer route via the streets may have been advisable, for safety as well as comfort. But then, both the experience, and its deeper meaning, would have been foregone.***Wasim Jaffer is sitting in the stands last week watching the Trent Bridge Test. Every other minute, someone recognises him. People ask to take photos with him. He obliges with detached ease, neither that of a faded star desperate for attention nor that of a grumpy ageing man treating fans as nuisance. After all these years, he still has the same day job: to make runs. Only, the stage is as removed fromas the Stretford woodland is from civilisation.***Just when a hint of concern appears -- is the dirt track taking you deeper and deeper into nowhere -- the sounds of life are heard. Of bat on ball. Of feet on ground. Of men shouting with excitement. We are at the cricket. Stretford are playing Walshaw at home in a one-day game in theCricket League Division 1. Walshaw have overseas professional Wasim Jaffer slotted in at No 4.The setting is so British it is almost clichéd. An outfield far lusher than Trent Bridge. Trees, tall and taller, along the far boundary, separating the ground from the woods. Smart little brick pavilion at deep midwicket, with a bed of blooming, colourful flowers.“Got to have the flower bed, else you may be disqualified,” jokes Mikey Watt, 29, wicketkeeper-batsman, Walshaw captain, and a physical education teacher at a school when he is not playing.Since he began playing, Watt has been with Walshaw. About 23 years. Talk about loyalty.“We have a 2nd XI player who is quitting his admin job because they wouldn’t allow him time for practice. Now that is real loyalty! I don’t think he liked his job too much anyway.”Watt remembers watching the 2007 Test series between England and India on TV, in which Jaffer made fifties as opener at Lord’s and Trent Bridge. “To have followed his career from all those years ago… never thought I would play with him one day.”Jaffer is the first Test cricketer Watt remembers having had in his team. “The day he first arrived at nets, it was freezing in April. But it did not take too long to break the ice.”It took some more time for the younger members of the squad – the youngest is 15, Watt says -- to be themselves with someone who played 31 Tests, and only months ago, won his ninth Ranji Trophy in nine attempts.“He never lets you feel he is who he is. He is so easy-going, and will never interfere in matters of technique unless absolutely needed. He lets people be.“As long as you don’t make him run too much around on the field, he is alright.”Watt’s mother is one of the about six or seven people watching the game, mostly relatives of the players. “Who is he?” she asks her son, about this correspondent.“He has come all the way from Mumbai to watch us play,” he declares, with mock seriousness, before informing her he is covering the ongoing Test series.“Our 2nd XI just bowled out the opposition for 47,” shouts another Walshaw player. “Make sure you put that in your paper.”Watt and a few other team-mates keep strolling around the boundary casually while the game is on.The drinks break involves a man and a woman walking on to the ground holding a jug each of water and, along with plastic glasses.Meanwhile, Jaffer is padded up in the dressing room and talking non-stop with No 3 Ibrar Latif, who also plays hockey.He mentions a fast bowler who bowls in the 140s, then says players should not be talked up too soon. “Ye kya, ye toh bilkul keeper ke peeche khada hai,” he suddenly exclaims after noticing a long-stop has been put in.The Stretford outfield is shiny green, but the pitch is dry, dusty, uneven and two-paced.“Our pitch is much better,” says Walshaw leg-spinner Mohammad Khan. “Only, there is a ridge around the good length area. You go forward, and the ball flies past your head at times.” Whoa!Jaffer’s turn to bat arrives only in the 43rd over, when Latif falls. The Stretford players go silent after some celebrating. They look towards the dressing room, towards that man making that familiar, measured, slow walk to the middle. It is almost an acknowledgment that they understand, and respect, who he is.Jaffer is soon toying around with the field. He hangs back and swings one over square leg. He gracefully lofts a fast bowler over extra cover for six. He delays his bat-swing to pick the gap between long-on and deep midwicket for four. He hits 29 off 17 before holing out to long-on, a wicket that is celebrated the most.Walshaw post 254 for 6 from their 50 overs. Stretford manage 48.Watt believes Walshaw, placed third among 12 teams with three games to go, have a chance to gain promotion to the premier division.Jaffer is a major reason for Watt’s belief. He is averaging 82.45 for the season, with 907 runs in 16 innings, at a strike-rate of 90, with one century and 10 fifties.At 40, cricket is still a way of life for Jaffer. He plays up to three-four club matches every week, including unofficial ones, and trains for at least an hour-and-a-half before each. If he does not, his body would go stiff at his age in the English weather.Coaching would be a natural progression eventually -- he likes sharing his knowledge--but the itch to play refuses to go away. Be it for India or Vidarbha or Walshaw.