So, what do you think is the most telling piece of statistic from this year’s World Cup? Brendon McCullum’s incredible strike rate of 191.81, Kumar Sangakkara’s seemingly impossible achievement of making four consecutive hundreds in ODIs, or Daniel Vettori’s economy rate of 3.98 despite bowling each of his 70.5 overs in the smallish New Zealand grounds?
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If you look at it from my point of view, it is none of the above. The number to concentrate on is 51,993. As in 51,993 kilometers. That is the distance I will have covered the day when I land back in the UAE.
It would involve 22 different flights, and does not count the hundreds of kilometers I have walked, or the 46km I rode on a bicycle on an inspired morning in Napier. Not impressed yet? Well…that’s about 25 per cent more than one complete circumnavigation of the globe (circumference of Planet Earth is 40,075km).
I decided to highlight this because every friend of mine has had the same reaction when they hear of my 51-day Down Under tour: “How lucky!”
The worst part of the travel – taking an early-morning flight from one venue to another after covering a night match, from which I would finish my work only around 2am.
My poor phone, which also doubles up as my alarm, bore the brunt of my frustration. So much so that it decided to go AWOL for a considerable amount of time – lost in a Sydney taxi actually! We have had an emotional reunion since then and I have promised that I would never throw it across my hotel room the next time it tries to wake me up at 5am.
The early-morning flights have been a disaster for one more reason. None of the Australian or New Zealand hotels allow you to check in before 1pm. To cut a long story short, like Tom Hanks at JFK in The Terminal, I know the location of restrooms in most Australian and New Zealand airports by now.
And here is the other part. In between the 48 matches so far, travel and failed efforts to catch up on my sleep, I have not seen a single kangaroo so far. My five-year-old son is refusing to believe I am in Australia without a mandatory picture with the marsupial posted on my Facebook.
Thankfully, I did meet a couple of sheep in New Zealand, so that part of the trip has been validated in his books. So people, I don’t care if they decided to abandon the final and name India the champion on March 30. That day, I have a date with Mr Skippy in Melbourne Zoo, and come hell or high water, I mean to keep it.
