The Caribbean from Indian Eyes

Sat, May 27, '06

by MICHELLE MCDONALD

For many of the journalists covering the series between the West Indies and India, this is their first time working in the Caribbean. What have been their impressions so far of the food, their travels, the atmosphere and the hospitality of the Caribbean people?

CaribbeanCricket.com roving reporter Michelle McDonald asked two of them after lunch at the fourth ODI in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad...

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is staff writer of Wisden Cricinfo. Apart from writing about the matches, he and also contributes to the site's various blogs.

Nicest food eaten in Jamaica...

I really liked the cassavas, the round ones [they're called bammies] and quite a bit of the different types of chicken. I eat everything. I had the Jerk. I really liked the Jerk in Jamaica. I like the Jerk here as well.

Lunch in Trinidad today...

I liked it. I thought that lunch in the press box here was the best lunch we've had throughout the series. In Jamaica, I had quite a bit of fish but the rice and gravy they gave along with, I didn't like that so much. Today was good.

Travel routing to get here...

I came from Mumbai to London to Kingston, and from Kingston to St Maarten to St Kitts. I didn't get quite a bit of luggage in St Kitts. I got it the next day. Then St Kitts to Antigua ? where I spent seven hours ? to Port of Spain.

I never flew on small aircraft before. It was maybe a 30 ? 37 seater, definitely not 50. Luckily it was a short flight. It was pretty uncomfortable.

What he has blogged about here...

Couldn't get an internet connection yesterday, but to tell you honestly, and probably I haven't seen enough, but it's not appealing to me as much as Jamaica. [Oh really!] It's not as lively, seems a bit more sober [you definitely haven't seen enough; Trinidad is fete capital of the Caribbean]. I guess, I guess. I'll probably see much more of it tomorrow.

What he plans to do tomorrow?

We are going to Maracas Beach, thinking of going to San Fernando as well down south and maybe if I get the time, pop in and see the Brian Lara stadium and how things are going with that.

If I get the time I guess, because it's a quick stop here ? five days ? so let's see. [It's actually on the way to the beach] Oh, then I should probably go then.] [Yup]

About the hospitality of the Caribbean people...

It's been brilliant! In Jamaica, we were received very well. Taxi drivers and whoever we met were very enamoured by the fact that we were from India. They kept asking us a lot of questions about India, Indian players, cricket. We spoke a lot about cricket. Had arguments about cricket; had little fights about cricket. It was really good.

I really enjoyed the extent to which the Caribbean people appreciate their cricket. It's been real good fun speaking cricket, speaking even about other things about food and so on. And there is a mutual curiosity; they about India and we about the Caribbean and that has been really interesting.

Pre-existing Impressions about the Caribbean, the people and lifestyle...

Easy going, fun loving and the more partying types, and it's pretty much what I am getting to see. Not taking too many things that seriously. It's more the enjoyment and looking at the positive side of things, so it's been really good.

Atmosphere at the grounds...

Much noisier in India, in fact the noise is throughout the game. In between balls, it's a bit silent here. There, it's constant noise. It really gets to you sometimes. Most of the press boxes are enclosed, but in some cases it's open press box so we have to manage. India's stadium capacities are much bigger so that's why the noise increases as well, but this is a bit more musical and there is a bit more atmosphere and colour and dancing. In India, it's more intense.

Jaideep Bhandarkar, special correspondent, New Delhi Television Ltd

Jaideep first came to the West Indies (Barbados) in 1986 with his family. Memories included making it to Kensington Oval because his uncle Dilip Sardesai played in the winning 1971 series and got a century there.

About the food...

Never had a problem with food because I eat everything. I think when one travels like this, one likes to always enjoy the local delicacy or cuisine or what each island is famous for. In Jamaica, it was Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork. In St Kitts, we were there for three days so we didn't get much chance. In Trinidad, we had roti for lunch yesterday which is like an Indian thing [but in India they don't wrap their roti?] The way it was made was very different from the way we eat it back in India.

About the people, the hospitality...

The people have been great. I really haven't had any fears. Of course when we came here first, you always heard stories about Kingston [Jamaica] being a very unsafe city. A lot of cab drivers we spoke with, they said if you go to any city in the world, any city is unsafe. It depends where you go, what time of the day. At night you want to avoid walking around.

But so far we have had no problems with the people. We have had a lot of warmth, a lot of hospitality wherever we go. In St Kitts, people would just come up to you in the middle of the road and say 'hi, welcome to St Kitts despite not knowing who you were.

About the atmosphere...

It's beautiful. The West Indies is a very colourful [set of] islands. Everyone here is very passionate about their cricket. Everyone is like an expert. The experience has been good. I guess the only tiring part has been the travelling.

About the travelling...

Living out of a suitcase isn't the most ideal situation. Losing a suitcase isn't also. We went to St Kitts and the evening we arrived, two of my bags didn't. So I went to my hotel, checked in, went back to the airport and one had come. The next day was completely work and when I went back to the airport the evening, the second one had arrived. But it just leaves you a little bit uncomfortable because you are in the same clothes. You are travelling, you need your things, so that was the only sort of problem.

As far as travel goes, it hasn't been too bad. We don't travel light. Television journalists don't travel light wherever they go. Between two of us, we have about 10 pieces of luggage so that's a lot of luggage, a lot of excess baggage, so a lot of money coming into the economy you could say.

About the numbers of Indian journalists expected next year...

This tournament hasn't seen true Indian journalists turn up. We are about 30 right now. Next year it is probably going to be even worse because I remember South Africa in 2003, the largest media contingent at the World Cup were Indians.

Every Indian TV channel, every newspaper and every weekly will want to come because the World Cup is big and the way India has been playing over the last few months, they are definitely among the favourites. Everyone does feel we have the opportunity, we have the chance, we have the team to make it to the semi finals. Whether we win it or not of course is a totally different equation.

About the greatest concern...

The hotels. We booked about two months in advance because I got lists from a friend of mine who works at Ten Sports so it was very easy for us. The only place where we struggled to get a hotel was St Kitts, which we eventually managed. But the rest of the places it was smooth sailing.

I am really worried about next year because you are going to have not just journalists. You are going to have fans ? Indian fans ? and Indian fans are huge in number. They are going to be all the way from India, they are going to be from England and they are going to be even more from the United States where there is a very very large Indian population. So my only fear is will there be enough hotels for people to stay in?

I think things of course are a little bit expensive when you come from a country like India. You come here using American dollars and in each country it's a different equation. Jamaica proved to be quite expensive, Trinidad isn't, St Kitts also was expensive.

Another thing we are thinking of is visas. You know every island you need a different visa. There should be a systematic thing. One visa for all the islands or a special visa just for the World Cup will probably make life a lot more easier for people. [I think the Governments are working on that]

But I haven't seen too much of problems. Where we have been staying in the three islands so far, the stadiums have been close by. We haven't had to travel too much of a distance. Yes, we had to travel four hours to Montego Bay for the tour game but I guess it happens in India, it happens wherever you go in the world.

Apart from that, I can't really see too many things I can complain about. The weather is a lot similar so it really doesn't matter.