Everywhere We Went by Ben Dirs

Author:Ben Dirs [Dirs, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857208378
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

7

Barmy Army special forces – Asia

England’s tours to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are chances for the Barmy Army to prove to the British media that it is more than a glorified Club18–30-style booze crew: no clubbing in Karachi, no daiquiris in Dhaka and no lap-dancing in Lahore. The tours are evidence the Barmy Army was a shifting entity, altering its make-up depending on which country it happened to be in at any given time. So while the fair-weather fans seek out more hedonistic destinations, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh play host to the hardcore.

‘I did Bangladesh from start to finish in 2010 and that was probably my favourite ever tour,’ says Barmy Army veteran Katy Cooke. ‘It felt as if we were the Barmy Army’s crack squad. Me and Nicky [Bowes] were there from the very first day of the first warm-up match at the Bangladesh Institute of Sports in Fatullah. What I remember about that match was that there was no seating, we were all sat on grass banks and at one point there was a huge commotion over the other side of the ground. Someone had snapped a chair from the concrete and it looked like he was hitting someone with it, which seemed weird, because that tour was pretty much alcohol-free. It turned out it was a snake that had snuck on to the outfield. You don’t get that at the MCG.

‘You could have a drink in Bangladesh, there was a British club, but if you want a drinking holiday, you don’t go to a Muslim country. We wouldn’t really have to tone down the behaviour in Bangladesh, that naturally happened, because of the lack of alcohol. The boozers save up their money for Barbados, Sydney or Cape Town. But you’d be surprised how many were on that tour. We did a hundred and seventy-five shirts that we were going to give away for free for anyone who turned up, and we ran out and had to do another batch. But the Barmies that end up in a place like Bangladesh are there for two things: cricket and culture.’

Nasser Hussain was skipper when England pulled off their famous win in Karachi in 2000. As he and Graham Thorpe guided England home in near darkness, it may have seemed like they were on their own. But there were England fans out there amid the gloom, albeit a happy few. ‘I think it says a great deal about the commitment of the Barmy Army that they make it to places like Pakistan,’ says Hussain. ‘You look at some of these Test matches abroad, in places like Karachi or Lahore, they don’t always sell very well. But the England fans make the crowd, make it an interesting arena, an interesting place to be. There’s nothing worse than playing a Test match in front of one man and his dog. So I used to be very appreciative of the Barmy Army members who made trips like that.

‘But aside from what it says about their commitment, it also says a lot about the type of people they are.

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