MCC at Arundel - an insider's guide

LAST WEEK I was lucky enough to be at Arundel for the three-day fixture between the MCC and Sri Lanka A. I was part of a team of volunteers recruited to provide an MCC audio description service in association with the Royal National Institute For The Blind.

The service was launched at Lord's last season where all matches - international, county or "other" receive a ball-by-ball commentary.

This game at Arundel marked the second occasion that the MCC have provided a description service outside the home of cricket. The first one was at the Racecourse Ground in Durham last month when the MCC faced the West Indies.

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Instead of speaking from a lofty position on top of an ivory tower at Lord's, our commentary position at Arundel was in a tent on top of a small hill at the Park end of the tree lined ground.

The flag on top of the Duke of Norfolk's castle was visible at the opposite end and without an advertising board in sight we were a long way away from the commercial side of the game. Our tent was flanked on either side by the scorers and the Sri Lanka A team analyst thus giving us a wealth of data to draw upon.

The MCC, captained by New Zealand international Craig McMillan, fielded a young side with seven UCCE players while the visitors fielded a heavyweight team with five test players.

Though we were staying in the same hotel as both teams, none of us had dared to approach the players for any pre-match chat the night before the game, better to let the match take shape first, we reasoned.

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We got a good close up view of the wicket before the game (an unthinkable prospect at Lord's) and felt that it was dry, slowish, batsman friendly and possibly conducive to spin bowling later on.

DAY ONE:

MCC are bowled out for 167 in just 59 overs with the senior trio of Akash Chopra (India), Craig McMillan (NZ) and Matthew Wood (Somerset) registering 44 runs between them.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath (3-39 off 16.1 overs) had us all enthralled with his clever variations in pace, flight and his "mystery ball" (the one that turns back in to the right handed batsman).

But it was a team effort with new ball bowler Chamara Welegedara getting Chopra early lbw to an inswinging delivery and his partner Ishara Amerasinghe particularly effective in wiping out the lower order.

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My strongest memories of the day would have to be the unusual occurrance of seven runs being scored off the first delivery of the match (three from the bat of Chopra plus four overthrows) and the batting of Afghan and MCC young cricketer Mohammad Nabi.

He came to the wicket with MCC in trouble at 89-3 and got off the mark by mowing a six over long-on. He went on to top score with 43 including 34 of those runs in boundaries. He would get off the mark with a six in the second innings the next day.

Ruel Brathwaite bowled with real fire in Sri Lanka A's innings in the final session striking Mahela Udawatte on the hand and rushing him through several shots. On this occasion however, his efforts were unrewarded. The tourists closed on 111-3, 56 runs behind.

The commentary team are happy with their day's work and looking forward to tommorrow. I must have a look at our rota and try not to be on the air on at both the lunch and tea intervals, as I was today.

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Back at the hotel, I decide to write up a day one report for our opening broadcast in the morning. I pick the brains of the rest of the team in order to do so and I am disturbed to see that their powers of recall are far beyond my own.

My back is as stiff as a board after so much time sitting behind the mike. I resolve to rise early for loosening up exercises.

DAY TWO:

Thilan Samaraweera, the Sri Lanka A captain, departs early lbw to Matthew Wood (of Cardiff UCCE, not Somerset. Two Matthew Woods in this MCC team) but Sri Lanka end on 415-7 off their maximum allocation of 100 overs.

Kaushal Silva, the diminutive wicketkeeper, top scores with an unbeaten 118 and reaches his 100 with a lovely late cut to backward point for four. Another fine team effort with a 50 from Udawatte the previous day and two more 50s from Jehan Mubarak (listed in Cricinfo as the Sri Lankan David Gower) and all rounder Gayan Wijekoon.

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By the close MCC are 100-4 and still 148 runs in deficit. Craig McMillan departs for a duck after his powerful square cut is brilliantly caught one-handed by a jumping Rangana Herath.

Mohammad Nabi swings a delivery over mid-wicket, the member's marquis and a line of trees for six. Yes, it was his first scoring shot. A new ball is promptly delivered. Chopra survives and ends on 46 not out. Plenty more will be needed from him.

Amerasinghe confounds my prediction that the spinners will dominate the second innings with three wickets for 26 runs off 6 overs. After two seasons I have still not learned to stop making predictions.

I miss out again at the tea interval but I do manage to interview MCC head of cricket John Stephenson during that time, so I'm quite content.

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After the close of play we join the teams in the member's marquis for a cocktail reception and the raffle prize draw. I take advantage of a perfect mingling opportunity to have a lenghthy chat with the Sri Lankan team analyst.

I also chat briefly to a couple of the MCC players and congratulate Sliva on his innings. With his unbeaten 100 plus his work behind the stumps, he will surely rest easy tonight.

I miss out on the top prize at the raffle (tickets to see a ODI between England and India at Lord's in September) as I didnt buy a ticket. I concluded that this oversight probably had only the smallest effect on my chances of success.

DAY THREE:

Niroshan, the Sri Lankan team analyst, pops in to our tent briefly to follow the progress of the full Sri Lanka side in their test match against Bangladesh on our computerised "Live Scores" page.

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Sri Lanka are on course for a big win. He notices my day two match report notes and is pleased with my opening statement: "Sri Lanka A are in a very strong position"

Chopra digs in scoring 106. He is well supported by Tom Westley (Essex Academy, 42 runs) and later by Chris Prowting (Leeds, Bradford UCCE, 48 runs). MCC eventually fall for 254 runs -a lead of six which Sri Lanka A overhaul in one over thus winning by 10 wickets with a full session to spare.

As the game drifted towards its conclusion we feel brave enough to recruit the services of James Morris (Durham UCCE) and Craig McMillan, who both do a superb job as guest summarizers.

Craig McMillan is disarmingly frank about his modest return in the game (innings of two and nought) and is looking forward to the Twenty20 world cup.

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Somehow I still end up on the air at lunchtime and once again have to dine in the pavilion alone feeling, and probably looking, like a complete gooseberry.

Some of the team confess to "End of Game-itis" towards the end of our commentary. We have a brief debate about whether or not the term "hillock" - my description of the hill on top of which our commentary position was located - is in fact grammatically correct.

We also desparately try to think of a pun for Simon Butler who had the thankless task of bowling the final over for the MCC. The best I can manage is a feeble - "The Butler did it"

Hopefully our listeners via our live website and the spectators who were listening on headsets we rented out in the club shop were not too perturbed.

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By the end we all agreed that this had been our most enjoyable assignment yet. We hope for plenty more entertaining cricket to talk about in the near future.

(For more info on the MCC commentary service, please go to www.lords.org , you can also e-mail the commentary team on match days on [email protected]).

Ben Pheazey is a volunteer cricket commentator, recruited by the MCC to provide an audio description service for cricket matches in association with the Royal National Institute For The Blind.

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