Indians left to cool heels in Bulawayo

Strange it may sound, Indians were not able to leave Bulawayo on Saturday as air tickets were not available.

Indians have stayed put in Bulawayo to nurse their wounds but it is a different matter they would treat this unwanted sojourn as adding insult to injury.

HT Image

Curious as it may sound, Indians were not able to leave Bulawayo on Saturday because the air tickets were not available, as Indian captain Sourav Ganguly explained to the mediapersons after the humiliating defeat to New Zealand in the triangular series on Friday.

So even as the Indian media and other personnel connected with the tour were boarding the flight for Harare where the action now shifts in the series, the cricketers were left to cool their heels in Bulawayo.

Now Bulawayo is many things - The City of Kings, according to a tourist brochure; 'the place of killing', in the words of a literal translation from the Ndebele language. The Indian top order would like to go with this assessment but in essence a sleepy town where everyday is a Sunday.

So far in the tour, the Indians have been left to do the catching up -- arriving late, overstaying in Harare when they should have been in Bulawayo and now held up in Bulawayo when they should be in Harare.

To add more spice, if not rubbing salt to their wounds, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming pompously announced that his side could do better on a seaming track in Harare than Bulawayo where the wicket favoured the batsmen.