Sellsy's Monday Supplement

A new look England fly out to the Caribbean this week in preparation for the World T20 cup, playing the West Indies in three ODI’s and then three T20 matches. Then they fly to Bangladesh for the tournament which begins in March.

I say new look, as there is of course no Kevin Pietersen, no Andy Flower (he did give up his involvement in the shorter version of the game sometime ago), but there is Paul Collingwood to assist Head Coach Ashley Giles.

Collingwood’s appointment is very good and very shrewd indeed, I suppose results will tell. He knows the players as he has played against the majority of them last season, he knows the England set up, and he, as he has shown with Durham last season, can get the best out players in the face of adversity.

It was 10 years ago that I visited the shores of the Caribbean to watch England play cricket, visiting various islands and meeting some wonderful people. First stop was Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, the home off Brian Lara. Boy do the locals love him.

I rolled up to the ground in the heart of the city on a beautiful hot morning, looking to some exciting calypso cricket. Found my seat, in some shade thankfully, the bar area was just behind me and the food just down a few steps on the next floor down. Heaven!

The West Indies won the toss, to the absolute joy of the locals, decided to bat, and that’s where it started to go wrong. As soon as the players walked out to the middle, the thunder and lightning started and one of the heaviest storms I have ever witnessed hammered down.

Within minutes the outfield was a lake, and when I peered over my shoulder to look outside the ground the streets were like rivers, with water just flowing down the roads. Wow! The rain relented after about 30 minutes, but by then the damage was done, there was absolutely no chance of play that day.

Instead of going back to the hotel, my travelling colleague, John Harlow (now where is he?), talked me in to going down town to have a few beers with the locals. Did I say earlier that Port of Spain was the home of a certain Brian Lara; well did those locals let us know that fact. Great banter, they always had the upper hand as Lara was the greatest batsman of his era, scoring 375 and 400 against England in recent years.

The Carib beer flowed, more talking rubbish about cricket, I even got on to the subject of Viv Richards, one of Somerset’s greatest players, but I suppose he was an Antiguan. A couple of pick-ups then appeared, one was full of steel drums and the other full of scantly dresses ladies. Well the steel band set itself up in the street just outside the bar, the music flowed and dancing in the street was unavoidable.

A enjoyment came to an end somewhat after a couple of hours and just when it was getting dark, when it whispered in our ear that we had better go back to our hotel. In asking why, the local who gave us a warning said there are some gang members on the way to the area looking to take out some revenge on white people. With that, no questions were asked, a taxi was hailed, we piled in and set off back to the hotel via a food shack.

When arriving back at the hotel, the Hilton no less where all the media boys were staying, I fell out of the taxi, clutching my bag of food, but ending up a heap on the floor. I looked around to see if anyone seen us, but in front of me was this figure, Ian Botham no less, he looked at me, smiled and just said: “looks as if you have had a good night!”

5.27, enough of that, time for Thatchers and skittles.......!