Ian Jones, slight-framed, needed to change three buses to achieve the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) Academy floor from Benaulim forward of the host’s first day’s play towards Tamil Nadu within the fifth spherical of the Ranji Trophy on Friday
“Half past six,” he says on being requested when he left within the morning.
Wearing a GCA tee, he might have been simply mistaken for an affiliation member. He’d pulled up a chair and sat down on the second flooring of the complicated that homes the dressing rooms.
He often appeared by way of his binoculars and made observations. “Well, when they (Goa) were in the lower tier, they were playing evenly-matched teams. This match is not an even game, and when they play Gujarat, that won’t be an even game as well,” stated the 64-year-old, who seems youthful.
Jones hails from Yorkshire, however has been visiting Goa yearly since 2002. “Beginning of October till the end of March. Because it’s nice and warm and (there’s) no rain. It’s too cold in England.”
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Whenever he visits, he makes it a degree to attend all of the home matches that Goa performs at residence. “I’ve been watching them all the time. They used to play at the old ground in Margao. This one (ground) didn’t open until 2008.”
Asked for his view of the Goa groups over time, he stated: “Well, the standard isn’t very good. They’re sort of third-division. It’s all the same.”
He’s even been to the away matches that Goa has performed. “Occasionally, I go to away matches. I’ve been to a few. I’ve seen them play Services. I’ve been to Kashmir and Bhubaneswar…”
Asked if he had any favorite participant or reminiscence, he stated: “Well, (Swapnil) Asnodkar used to be the best batter they had until he retired. Memory works when they win; they don’t win very often.
“Asnodkar once got 270 (254 n.o. vs Railways in 2007) at Margao! I went and congratulated him.”
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A neighborhood journalist spots him and proceeds to ask if he was sick since he hadn’t come for the final match versus Punjab. He says he’d been to the primary Test between India and England in Hyderabad. “I’ve been to Chennai a few times. I’ve seen the Test matches there. The last time I came to Chennai was in 2010, when Dhoni got 200 against Australia.”
Earlier, Jones used to attend matches together with his late spouse, with whom he used to run a catering firm. “It’s been five years since she passed away.”
Back residence, he’d all the time been following Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. “Trent Bridge is my favourite (ground), where Nottinghamshire play.”
Asked for his favorite participant of all time, he stated, “Geoffrey Boycott. He’s Yorkshire. He wouldn’t play much today. He doesn’t score very fast. Well, he would have to score a bit faster now than he did in the ‘70s. Well, he probably would. But he wouldn’t play like England play with this Bazball. Geoffrey wouldn’t play that.”
Asked for his favorite cricket reminiscence at residence, he stated: “1981, against Australia, when (Ian) Botham got 150 (149 n.o.) and (Bob) Willis got eight wickets (8/43). England followed on, Headingley.”
He stated that he would come for all days of the match and was wrapping as much as be prepared to go away as quickly because the day’s play acquired over. Asked by what time he would return, he stated, “Half past seven.”
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com