Fireworks off the field - Leventhal
It's been mayhem off the pitch but for England, miserable on it. Adam's diary is back!
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A week has passed since my last entry and it has been one of the busiest working week of my career.
We've had an England warm-up match, five practice days, India versus England, a Pakistan bombshell with two players sent home for failing drug tests, two exclusive interviews with Bob Woolmer, one with ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, Andrew Flintoff, Duncan Fletcher, Andrew Strauss, Jamie Dalrymple, Mohammad Kaif, Rahul Dravid, umpires Simon Taufel and Daryl Harper, Chris Read, Paul Collingwood, Michael Yardy and Steve Harmison. It's been brilliant though!
Lets start at the beginning. England played their only warm-up match against an RCA XI outside Jaipur. It was a touch surreal, the roads around the ground had been closed off to ensure that it was a genuine behind-closed-doors affair.
As a dominant England performance unfolded, the buildings that overlooked the ground became garnished with a rooftop brigade of eager fans trying to get a sneaky peek of the big guns on show.
The confident mood of the team was enhanced by a solid performance, fifties for Flintoff, Bell and Dalrymple plus returning wickets for Anderson and Harmison. Well set for India then! In the two days leading upto the match the optimists continued to believe that victory over the hosts was attainable.
For me, the moment when I really believed it too, was the night before the match when England trained under the lights at the SMS stadium. As they arrived on the pitch, the PA system was being tested with various dancey remixes of familiar tracks and it got the team dancing.
Gilo was first, then Rikki Clarke started to grind before Colly went into full rave mode busting shapes left right and centre. Great pictures, a team bursting with energy.
I wrote my piece at the stadium before heading off to our feed point in Jaipur. As I was doing so I had to avoid the sea of shiny backed beatles that came out in the night to suckle on the dew that built up in the evenings.
I felt they helped me out, because I was keen to write quickly otherwise I may have been carried away to their nests to become Beatlejuice!
The match was such an anti-climax, wickets tumbled in the England's innings, and despite a fight back towards the end, India always looked firmly in control. The highlight was the comedy moment when the fireworks were set off during play. It helped England, they took two wickets but it made me think how the hell was that allowed to happen.
Imagine the scene, the man in charge of setting off the fireworks having a phone conversation with the stadium manager, there's a cacophony of noise from the partisan home crowd watching their hero Sachin blasting the ball to all quarters, and there's an eagerness to set the fireworks off at the right time.
Firework man: "Shall I set them off now?"
Stadium manager: "What? Set them off now?!"
Firework man: "Yes, I'll set them off now!"
Stadium manager: "No!"
Firework man: "What! Go!"
Stadium manager: "No! No!"
Firework man: "Go? Go? Ok!"
Crash, bang, wallop! Again great pictures.
Early the next morning I went to feed the material back so it was fresh for the morning production team to use on Sky Sports News. Then I was looking forward to having a few hours off before ICC Chief Exec Malcolm Speed held a presser at the stadium to wax lyrical about the Champions Trophy.
It's fitting that every so often an air raid siren goes off here in Jaipur, I'm not sure what it signals but when I arrived back at the hotel it certainly meant incoming bombshell!
I bumped into Bob Woolmer who confirmed to me that both Ahktar and Asif had been sent home having failed drugs tests. A massive story. We instantly kicked into gear. I did an interview with Woolmer, then reported what he'd said on the phone to both Sports News and Sky News. Adam interviews Strauss - Video
Then we sat down with Andrew Strauss to get his reaction. Next we had to get someone from the PCB to speak, we collared their media manager Talat Ali and persuaded him to read a statement to camera before he went off to the stadium to tell the rest of the press. That meant we could get the material back to London very quickly. When we arrived at the feed point it was hectic, but we were able to send back exclusive material that kept us ahead.
Next it was onto the Speed presser which had turned into a much more important moment with what had broken in the morning. As we were waiting we were being drip fed information so I was able to constantly update London with phone interviews.
Speed spoke well on the issue, but the day wasn't finished Pakistan were about to arrive for a net session. I felt those were the key pictures of the day, the team devoid of two of their most important players putting a brave face on things in adversity. It was well worth it. They arrived and before they started their session they all huddled together and chanted loudly before breaking away in determined fashion.
Because the story had moved on, I knew it was important to get some reaction to the news that Rana Naved's name had also been linked with a suspect test. Woolmer set us straight "its all rubbish" he said, we also interviewed Ali who confirmed what the coach had said and spoke strongly about the turbulent day that had rocked the team.
We then whisked ourselves off to the feed point for the third time that day, and had to get the manager to open up especially for us, which meant he had to miss a staff party, but we simply knew we had to get the material back.
That was almost it, but on the way back I had a long conversation with Akhtars agent who agreed to release a statement to add to the quotes that had appeared on the player's website. Two more phone reports and it was finally time to have my first meal of the day - at 2300. Frantic but fun.
It was an early start the next morning, we were able to spin the story on with Paul Collingwood's take on the issue. It just so happens that he's an ambassador for UK Sport and is fronting a campaign called "100% me", which encourages sportsmen and women to be responsible for what goes into their body. It wasn't just an England player's reaction, he was only an authority on the issue.
Once we finished that, it was off for a goodwill visit to a factory that supplies biscuits to children that don't have enough money for food. Ashley Giles, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis and Rikki Clarke all went along, and having been discussing performance enhancing for the last 24 hours, life was put into perspective when you saw children who needed basic supplies to survive.
On the way back, it was confirmed from the ICC that Malcolm Speed had agreed to do an exclusive one on one interview with me. When we returned Graeme set up, and we got on with it. Speed was good on drugs, Darrell Hair and England versus Australia. I went off to feed the two interviews and then met up with "gra" at the stadium for England nets.
Watching the team's gruelling fitness session, one of the hardest they'd done whilst here in India, allowed me to reflect on the non-stop few days that we'd had. I must admit as I was recording my track for the piece that I was about to send I felt absolutely knackered! England could rest their weary legs with a day off by the pool the next day, I couldn't.
We spoke to Michael Yardy about his first time on tour, then as Pakistan were leaving our hotel the next day for Mohali, I thought it was important to catch up with Bob Woolmer. He agreed to do another interview with us, and we found out some very interesting news about the drug tests that Asif and Akhtar had failed. It should be an intriguing hearing when those two sit in front of the PCB board.Woolmer Stands By Players - Video
I'm now looking forward to concentrating on the cricket again! It's a massive match next, the Aussies have arrived here in Jaipur and after their defeat to the Windies. England know they're not invincible. They know they have to raise their performance levels after the loss to India and it's almost certain that facing the Aussies so close to the Ashes will bring out their best. That's the hope anyway!
