Diary from Down Under

Not alone, not home: the hectic life of an international cricketer

England have already played cricket this year on nine days at three different grounds, having taken two flights and stayed in four hotels. They ain't seen nothing yet. From here on it will become busy. With a World Cup in South Africa, the usual packed domestic season, and then tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, 2003 could outstrip 2002.

Of course, the international cricketer leads a pampered lifestyle. He does a desirable job in front of people mostly respectful of his efforts, for consid-erable rewards while staying in the best hotels and travelling in comfort. But he does not see much of home.

The man from Vodafone, the team's sponsor, has just worked out the schedule for last year. It is true the players may need his product to stay in touch. England played 88 days of Test cricket, 25 one-day internationals and 23 days of other cricket. They flew on 61 days, had 21 days of domestic travel and had a total of 41 practice days (all right, so it wasn't enough practice).

They had to stay in 45 hotels, 30 abroad and 15 at home. They played at 33 different grounds in England, India, New Zealand and Australia. They were on tour for 172 of the year's 365 days. In all England were on duty, playing, travelling or practising, for 238 days.

Research continues into the number of times they packed and unpacked, had room service for supper and had laundry done. It has not yet been possible to count the injuries.

Players behaving badly

The book has been thrown at "Boof". No player has had a greater ban imposed than Darren Lehmann, the Australian batsman, since the International Cricket Council's code of conduct was introduced in 1992.

He has been suspended for five matches for his racially offensive comments after being dismissed in a VB Series match against Sri Lanka last week. Nobody, including Lehmann, doubts that he deserved it after shouting a racist obscenity.

The first player to be summoned for a breach of the code was Aqib Javed, who was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for behaving badly towards an umpire for Pakistan against England in July 1992.

The countries with the worst records in terms of the number of players penalised are Pakistan and India, with 30 each. Next come Australia with 27. England have had 14 players punished including Nasser Hussain (three times, once for excessive piping, once for coming to young James Foster's defence) and Michael Atherton (twice).

The best-behaved cricket team throughout the 11 years are West Indies. Only eight of their players have breached the code. The positions in the table of India and Pakistan are not helped by the repeated excitable behaviour of Sourav Ganguly and Inzamam-ul-Haq. Inzamam had the longest suspension before Lehmann. He missed two one-dayers in 1997 for wading into the crowd waving a bat after they kept calling him: "Big Potato".

Talking of Lehmann (everybody is here in South Australia, his home state) it was slightly unfortunate timing at Adelaide Cricket Ground night. As SA's favourite son, Lehmann is used to plug the merits of the ground and the cricket team. During breaks in play in the match on Friday between England and Sri Lanka, his smiling image appeared several times on the large screen, urging the locals to become members. "Sign up today and you could be watching from the members' enclosure sooner than you know." Which is where Boof will be watching from for a while.

The language barrier

Common sense and common consent say that the judgement passed on Lehmann was correct, though it sets a benchmark for the future. What happens, for instance, to the next player who intimidates an umpire (or referee) whether by language or conduct, which happens regularly?

There is the uncomfortable feeling in this country that not everybody sees it this way. For instance, the treatment of Muttiah Muralitharan has been dreadful. During the match in which Lehmann committed his grave misdemeanour, Murali was regularly cat-called, no-balled and had fruit thrown at him.

Yet a letter writer to The Australian said: "What a monstrous black joke the ICC are. They are quite happy to allow a chucker to remain in the game on obvious false grounds but are offended by some racist remark said in the heat of a game. What a sham and a shame they are." The sad suspicion is that the author is not alone.

Boy wonder becomes bat man

While it is obviously ridiculous to suggest that cricket is a one-man game, Bilal Shafayat is having a bash. The England Under-19 captain is enjoying a marvellous Australian tour. He scored a century and a half-century in the First Test and then took 6 for 54 to win the match. When the Under-19s played the Academy, the skipper let the others have a bat. But they needed 45 when he came in at 11 to strike 31 not out for a one-wicket victory. And yesterday he was again the hero. England were chasing 217 to win the first one-day international. Only Shafayat's 82 got them to 194.