Aussie News - Issue 22 - August 2006
First Day – Night Cricket Match in Mauritius
Members of the Commonwealth xi waiting to bat
Just when we had allowed a modicum of realism to enter our sporting fantasy world and we had admitted to ourselves that we were never going to be sport stars, Mauritius managed to throw us a lifeline. In one of the more surreal experiences of the A-based team in Port Louis, a friendly agreement to play in a Commonwealth XI vs Indian XI match to promote cricket in Mauritius snowballed into the first day-night game of cricket played in Mauritius. In another first, the game was also broadcast live on national television and was played before a crowd of over 1000 cricket-starved fans.
Despite over 70 percent of the 1.2 million Mauritian population being of Indian origin, there is no cricketing culture in place in Mauritius. The only cricket played is by Indian expatriates in a small 5-team league over the winter months. However, the Indian High Commission, together with a number of Indian owned local companies, are determined to introduce cricket to Mauritius.
The game was played at Anjalay Stadium, normally a soccer and athletics venue, on matting brought in from South Africa. The format was 25 overs per side, with bowlers being restricted to no more than 5 overs each. Invited guests included the Minister for Youth and Sport and the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Indian XI, wary of our sledging prowess, managed to land the first psychological blow. They agreed to provide the coloured uniforms each team would wear. Thus, resplendent in our (traditional?) Commonwealth colours of rhubarb and custard, Ian McConville, Stuart Shaw and Gerard Oakes bolstered by other players from Australia, South Africa, Britain, and Mauritius tackled a combined Indian XI. As ceremonial captain, Australian High Commissioner Ian McConville won the coin toss against his Indian counterpart and elected to bat before handing over on-field captaincy to Gerard Oakes.
Despite numerous rain interruptions, the Commonwealth XI posted a respectable 144 runs all out. Unfortunately the rain persisted, and by the time the Indian XI had faced 12 overs (to be 2 for 67) a modified version of the Duckworth Lewis rule had to be applied to meet the demand of television and their post-match presentations. As a result, the Indian XI was then presented with the relatively simple task of scoring a further 19 runs in three overs to win the match, much to the delight of the very pro-Indian crowd.
While disappointed not to have won the game, for three Aussie boys who have all, since childhood, harboured aspirations of playing sport at the highest level, this was about as close as we have come… and we loved it!
The lights, the cameras and large crowd playing music and noisily cheering anything anyone did all made for one of the greatest nights of our respective modest sporting careers. It would be petty to talk of individual scores. It is a team game after all.