da bwin： As South Africa found out to their cost in the first Test, Port Elizabeth was a haven of breezes and tranquility that suited the visiting Englishmendown to the ground
Roving Reporter by Andrew Miller at Durban26-Dec-2004
England lost their cool on a baking hot day at Durban© Getty Images
As South Africa found out to their cost in the first Test, Port Elizabethwas a haven of breezes and tranquillity that suited the visiting Englishmendown to the ground. It was hot, but hardly oppressive; cool, but not toocool for school, and safe enough for players and fans alike to stumble outof Toby Joe’s, the city’s most frequented nightclub, without too muchconcern for their welfare.Durban is something else entirely. This is a city where the skyscrapers wobble in the heat-haze, and the streets throb to the beat of a thousand souped-up minibus taxis, as they speed their cramped passengers from district to district while leaving a trail of techno in their wake. On Smith Street, one of the major arterial thoroughfares, the refined imperial architecture of the City Hall mingles with the glass and steel towers of the central business district and, in this sort of company, even the palm trees seem to have street cred.England, on the other hand, have shown no such awareness of theirsurroundings, and on the first morning of the Boxing Day Test they werewell and truly mugged – to the delight of a sun-baked crowd of 15,000, ofwhom at least two-thirds were the home supporters who had been so notableby their absence at St George’s Park. Rather like a horde of Germantourists, the locals had used their beach towels to claim every inch ofthe hill at Castle Corner long before the start of play, which left theBarmy Army to swelter in the shade-free stands at long leg. Little wondertheir chanting was so desultory.From the moment the sun makes its first appearance at 4.30am, there islittle respite from Durban’s sticky, cloying heat that saps all energy andcompels you to shed your clothes or flee for the shade, whichever is the morepractical. And as England’s fans wilted in the midday sun, so too didtheir batsmen, dripping one by one back to the pavilion to stick theirlayers of protective padding into the deep freeze. Perhaps they would havebeen better off wearing pith helmets in the manner of their forebears.The battered and bruised Ashley Giles, whose mind seemed to wander off tothe nearby Rorke’s Drift during his brief stay, might disagree with that,but for those in the crowd, they would certainly have been more sensibleheadwear than Father Christmas hats. But then when has good sense evercome into choosing cricket-watching garb? At lunch, the stands emptied as theKingsmead pitch took on the appearance of a Bombay maidan, with hundredsof impromptu cricket matches all overlapping each other, of which asizeable proportion had a festive fur-and-tinsel-lined feel.But with the locals in the ascendancy for once, Kingsmead was lessconcerned with fancy dress, and more interested in beer-jugs, bikinis andbronzed torsos. Not everyone found this au naturelle attitude to besustainable, however, and several sought sanctuary from the baking heat bypropping themselves up on the concrete slopes beneath the South Stand, andtucking into their cold-turkey sandwiches. It’s not always this swelteringin Durban, however, as Allan Mullally would testify. On England’s lastvisit, in 1999-2000, the ground was so wet that he had to undergo a fitnesstest precisely where the picnickers were now parked.Shortly after lunch, Kingsmead shook as a pair of military jets zoomedover the ground. Contrary to popular belief, they had not beencommandeered to take out the England fans, but were instead another stuntfrom the match sponsors, MTN, who had also cordoned off a special sectionof the ground, next to the pavilion at long-off.Entry to this area was strictly limited to people dressed in the company’s yellow colours, who were also noisy enough to drown out the Barmy Army’s inanities. On this occasion, however, with a full and festive crowd in attendance, and a winning team to support, the South Africans were on top in all departments.Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Cricinfo. He will be following the England team throughout the Test series in South Africa.