This is interesting. Don't really know Gary Kristen, but for someone hailing from South Africa, its a stretch to be disappointed with Indian conditions, while SA can hardly be called "developed".
-Ram http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/On_1996_tour_Gary_Kirsten_hated_India/articleshow/2579788.cms NEW DELHI: Quiz question: Which South African cricketer wrote the following words for a journal in his 1996-97 India tour dairy: "62 days in a country where westernised living conditions are regarded a luxury is no task for the faint-hearted." Answer: Gary Kirsten. In fact, his tour diary indicates that the former opening batsman had problems with almost every aspect of the Indian condition: food, socializing, travelling. The tour diary was published in the December 1996-January 1997 issue of SA Cricket Action. Kirsten also wrote that "to spread cricket to all corners of India, we played in what could politely be classed as one-horse towns, places with more cows on the street than cars." For the record, the South Africans played one-day games in Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Faridabad, Rajkot, Guwahati and Mumbai. The Tests were played at Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Kanpur. "I'll never forget arriving in Rajkot — laughter broke out in the bus when we were told we had reached our hotel, yet there didn't seem to be one in sight. It was actually above another building... A sense of humour is a necessity on this tour," wrote Kirsten. One wonders how the present BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, who hails from Rajkot, would react to that. Kirsten, who has been offered a two-year term with a package similar to Greg Chappell's, had also cribbed about the unavailability of direct flights to a playing destination. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
