India A lower order minimises WI A lead

Fri, Oct 4, '13

At the end of each day's play, long after the players have left the Jawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering Ground in Shimoga, around 200 people gather outside the West Indies A pavilion. These are mostly volunteers - only a few of them as college employees are paid extra for this - waiting for their work in the day to be accounted for. One by one, a certain committee's name is called up on the microphone.

"Sight-screen committee," you can hear, "today was okay, but in the 27th over, just before lunch, you let a man cross the screen as the bowler was running in. You can get better tomorrow." There are 18 such committees formed only for these six days. There is a food-for-players committee, there is a food-for-others committee, one committee looks after the police's needs, and another committee liaises with the BCCI and Karnataka State Cricket Association.