English interests

For Englishmen everywhere – or maybe just those of us in India – it promises to be a momentous afternoon in the IPL. Our presence until now has been limited to a hardy handful: Jeremy Snape (performance coach with the Rajasthan Royals), Mark Benson (umpire), Robin Jackman (commentator), several TV crew members, a smattering of tourists, and your correspondent (although not for much longer). If I’ve missed anyone, I apologise.

But today, if Shane Warne is good enough to pick him for the Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders in sweltering Jaipur, our numbers will balloon by one: step forward Dimitri Mascarenhas. He might have Sri Lankan parents; he might have been brought up in Perth; hell, he might speak like an Aussie. But he was born in Chiswick, west London, and he has hit several sixes for England. That’ll do for me.

There is a hope among the one-man party of travelling British journalists that Mascarenhas’s presence will spark a rush of interest back home. Several of the UK papers sent out journalists to cover the fireworks provided by the Chinnaswamy Stadium and Brendon McCullum before and during the IPL’s memorable curtain-raiser 13 days ago; a few flew north the next morning to catch the game in Delhi; Simon Hughes of the Daily Telegraph was even spotted at the Wankhede on the Sunday evening. And then there was one. You’ll understand if the arrival of Mascarenhas elicits more excitement than it really should.

It says a lot for the current preoccupations in England (Manchester United and Chelsea, basically) that it required Harbhajan Singh to whack Sreesanth for the daily papers to remember that there is a pretty significant sports event going on in India at the moment. Yes, it might be too long. Yes, it’s full of hot air and hype that diminishes rather than enhances. But this, if you’ll recall, is the start of the revolution.

Or is it? Because as far as the English are concerned, the story has moved on. Having apparently swallowed any pride they might have felt at the prospect of being bankrolled by an American, the England and Wales Cricket Board might just have come up with a formula to silence the dressing-room moans about missing out on the IPL’s dollars. If the five matches against Sir Allen Stanford’s West Indians really do take place, the need to play in India might be removed.

As much as Man U v Chelsea, the start of the English cricket season (such as it is), the collective intake of breath over the state of Freddie’s ankle, the perception that this is no more than a glorified Indian domestic league, and the fact that not many have access to Setanta, who are broadcasting the matches in the UK – as much as all that, Stanford may explain why interest has been muted. Now, where’s Warne? I need to talk to him about team selection…