Paul Baldwin

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It all started in September 2004. I opened my email to find an innocent looking message from Graham Cooper at ECC central office, "You have been nominated to the ICC Associate and Affiliate Panel. There will be a selection procedure, therefore you will be required to officiate at the World Cup Qualifying Schedule (WCQS) tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, please let us know if you will be available". Well I had to check my diary for all of about a nano-second before confirming I would be free! Over the next couple of months there was a plethora of emails regarding playing conditions, travel arrangements, meetings, and match schedules. All of which heightened my anticipation of the 12 days I would spend on the peninsular.

Thursday & Friday

Now the day had finally arrived. I was scheduled to meet Niels Bagh of Denmark at Düsseldorf airport, and we would then meet Trevor Henry in Dubai, and travel on together to KL. John Thallon the other member of the European "delegation" was due to arrive a day earlier. Did I have all the bits and pieces I needed? ICC Code of Conduct, Tournament Playing Conditions, White coat, six coins, spare bails, run up markers, pens, and the list went on. Was I prepared for the first couple of days which would be intensive classroom work led by Darrel Hair? Was I ready to be tested on my knowledge of the Laws? Well there was only one-way to find out at the start what I hoped would be a successful venture to Asia.

3rd umpires room at Bayuemas (Sarika Prasad-Singapore, Courtney Young-Cayman Islands, Tony Cooper-Fiji)"

Unfortunately it didn't start as well as it could have done. I waited forlornly at Düsseldorf in the hope that Niels would arrive, but he didn't! Neither did Trevor meet me in Dubai; this was turning into a seriously difficult trip before I had even arrived. However, what was more surprising was that my luggage had managed to follow me, after delays in Düsseldorf and Dubai amounting to over 3 hours of waiting, and some short sharp sprints through airport terminals.

Saturday & Sunday

A quiet drink at Kelab Aman.

Into the classroom and some intensive learning about playing conditions and how to apply them, and the ICC Code of Conduct in great detail. After 2 days in an air-conditioned room all the umpires were more than happy to test out their newly acquired knowledge on the field of play. Niels finally arrived a day late due to a mix up in flights, but more seriously John and Trevor had retired to their shared room and the sounds emitting from their rooms did not bode well for their scheduled appearances on the field later in the week! Trevor even had the questionable pleasure of spending a night in a Malaysian hospital before releasing himself.

Meanwhile I had to carry the responsibility of Europe upon my shoulders. Meeting and greeting, mingling, and discussing over light liquid refreshments the finer aspects of playing conditions with my colleagues from Japan, Nepal, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Kuwait, Vanuatu (a small island in the Pacific Ocean - explained at length by Geoff Clelland!) and the Cayman Islands to name but a few.

Monday

Niels was the first of the European umpires to be in the field and what none of us expected or had fully anticipated was the heat and humidity out in the middle. The matches started at 9.30am and the thermometer had already reached well over 35 degrees. Having to be at the ground 90 minutes before the start of play meant a 6.30 start, a hurried breakfast, and into a van to take the 4 umpires to the ground. 4 umpires can carry an amazing amount of equipment with them, bags, hats, jackets, and the vans on occasion only just managed to fit it all in. Once we had arrived we inspected the playing field, the pitch, found out where the coffee was being served, where the smokers could light up, and where cold drinks were available.

Rain on Sunday at Bayuemas.

Then as 4th umpire I found the scorers, now scorers in Europe tend to be wrapped in 4 layers of jackets, scarves, hats and gloves. The 2 ladies who I had the "misfortune" to sit with for the day, as I diligently carried out my duties, were in the official tournament t-shirts, and extremely attractive. Counting the balls in the over and keeping an eye on the score sheets has never been such a joy!

John Thallon and Trevor Henry walked down from the hotel during the afternoon to take in some of the atmosphere, and although both looking pale, it was good to see them back on their feet even though there were not pictures of healthy, fit umpires. John proceeded to watch the match through his eyelids, as Trevor expressed his astonishment at how John could sleep anywhere at anytime.

Niels meanwhile, had decided that after the match he wanted to go for a run in the Hotel gym. I wished him well, quietly shaking my head, and wondering at his madness. But on his return he reported that he had come close to serious injury! Not just running on a machine for the first time, but that a rather attractive young lady was running on the machine next to him, but he was unable to "look around" because he attempted it once and nearly fell off the back of the machine!

Tuesday

It was time to bite the bullet, I was standing in the Cayman Islands vs. Qatar match at the Royal Selangor Club, my colleague for the day, Tony Cooper of Fiji. It was hot, as the film Good Morning Vietnam so ably illustrated, it wasn't just hot, it was real hot, damn hot! Three paces and the sheen of sweat had already broken out on my burning brow! I certainly learnt that I should wear a hat in such conditions, 2 days later all the skin on my head fell off!

What was worse was that I was standing with my hands behind my back, now I had put copious layers of factor 75 on, but with the constant movement of my hands from behind my back, all the cream was rubbed off the tops of my hands and my forearms. The result being I ended up with arms the colour of freshly cooked lobster at the end of the day. A saying "Only mad dogs and English men stand out in the midday sun" came back to me, and it's true, the clubhouse was air conditioned, and the refreshments were flowing, and there were Tony and I suffering. Although not as much as the players, there was a study carried out on all players and umpires during the tournament to see how much weight was lost during a match in such extreme weather conditions. Now in one game I lost 2 Kilo's, and I was "only" standing, no running around or sprinting. I would hate to think how much some of the players were losing. Qatar comfortably won the match, and we all retreated back to the air-conditioned hotel and got ourselves ready for the official dinner.

On the way to the dinner there was almost an international incident on the umpires bus. I was sitting next to Anton the Japanese umpire, watching the police outriders, who were escorting us to the function. "Are they going to put their flashing lights on?" he asked. They did, and were forcing vehicles off the road to aid our passage, major traffic intersections were closed down so that the busses could travel straight through, it didn't half make us feel good. But back to the International incident, we were trying to remember the theme tune to the 80's TV series CHIPS (California Highway Patrol). And then deciding who should be Baker and Poncherello, as a child I was always Baker and wanted for once to be Poncherello, but no, Anton wanted to be, it wasn't fair, and my Teddies disappeared to the 4 corners of the bus!

The dinner itself was an experience; dining with the King and Queen, drum concerts and the Prince of Malaysia singing his party piece "My dingaling". Food fit for a king, although John and Trevor were less enthused by the baby squid and chilli soup, and I attempted to help them out by eating their portions too.

Chris Kelly had uttered some infamous words earlier that evening, "You are all going to have an eye and hearing test tomorrow, and it will only take an hour".

Wednesday

The famous 1-hour medical tests. It actually took nigh on 3 hours. We all met at 10.00 to be bussed out to the doctors surgery, "If you're ill call Doctor Gill", and were looking forward to being unleashed upon KL for the first time once we had got this appointment out of the way. Time dragged and it ended up with the Japanese umpire bowling the invisible cricket ball to the Vanuatu umpire holding the invisible bat in front of invisible wickets. I have to say the bowler had a suspect bowling action, and there were calls for the Code of Conduct book to thrown at him, literally! Some of the comments he made to the 18 other umpires are not repeatable!

The off field officials at Kelab Aman.

The doctor whilst checking my hearing had noticed the colour of my hands, and prescribed me some cream to take down the swelling. Unfortunately when I got the small tub, there was one word emblazoned across the top of it, "POISON"! But it did work, and my hands haven't fallen off yet.

We all had the afternoon off, and Niels and I decided to walk to the Petronas Towers, that were clearly visible from the hotel. We wanted to go up to the famous "Skybridge" but were thwarted by the fact that we should have been in a queue for the free tickets since 8.00 that morning. But still, I got a fridge magnet- it's the thought that counts! Shopping turned out to be a bit of a problem, the problem being there was so much to buy. I had not expected that everything would be so much more reasonable than in Europe and my thoughts turned to how much we could exceed the weight allowance on the flight back before we would have to pay a surcharge!

On our walk back from the towers we dropped into a small shopping mall, and found a snooker hall. Immediately the challenge was thrown down, and the first International snooker match between the Danish and German Umpiring associations was under way. Tight play lead to much holding of breath by the 2 Malay spectators waiting to go into the Karaoke box next to our table, and the owner of the hall who kept on falling asleep, obviously because he could not take the excitement anymore. But after some exhilarating play, and demonstrations of great skill by both protagonists, the German association came out on top by a comfortable 2 points, and both players though tired managed to toast each other royally in the bar of the hotel afterwards.

Thursday

Back to the cricket, 3rd Umpire at the Kelab Aman club, over looked by the hotel, and Trevor Henrys' debut in the tournament. Trevor was obviously feeling better, but when I took out the drinks after 70 minutes of play he did not look at his best. I went back in and checked that I had all my bits and pieces just in case I was called upon to replace him. Fortunately he managed to get through the day, but it certainly took a lot out of him. John meanwhile had fared better and was almost back to full fitness.

I had met up with Bhupinder Singh, a Malaysian umpire, who I had previously met at the ICC trophy in Toronto. He was a member of the Kelab club, and "twisted" my arm into staying on after the match to have a drink. The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur, but I met a Malaysian Army General and his aide, 2 ex hockey internationals and eventually made the regular evening umpires meeting 15 minutes late- sorry Chris! After promising to go back the following evening for a meal and listen to some original Indian music.

Friday

A day off, although the tournament continued, did a bit of shopping and then retired to my room. That evening Niels and I returned to Kelab Aman as promised. The food was superb, the drinks flowed, but the music was an acquired taste and we made a diplomatic exit, knowing we had a day off on Saturday and some serious shopping ahead of us.

Saturday

A quiet day, until the late afternoon after being convinced by the Japanese umpire that we should all go into China town. So there we were, umpires from Denmark, Kuwait, Kenya, Japan and Germany walking through the maelstrom that is Chinatown. As we had been told earlier in the day this was the place where we could get the "Original imitations"! None of us had experienced such a place before, it was unbelievable, I have never seen so many "Rolex" watches or Gucci bags before.

Sunday

The final matches of the tournament, Trevor was standing in the final, John was 4th umpire, I was standing with Tony Cooper again in the 3rd/ 4th playoff Nepal against Qatar, and Niels was standing in the 5th/ 6th playoff. Tony and I had to leave early to get to the Bayuemas Oval, and we left in heavy rain.

Play at Kelab Aman.

The rain seemed to get harder the closer we got to the ground, and we were not particularly optimistic about getting the game started at all. Loss of over calculations were the main topic of discussion, and what was the latest time we could start the match to reach the scheduled finish time and allow each side to face 20 overs. Reassured we arrived before the teams, and looked out over a depressing scene. Covers with 2 inches of water on them, and more rain coming towards us.

Remarkably we were the first match to get underway with 39 overs scheduled per side. The sun had come back out and it did get decidedly warm during the afternoon. Both teams had lost their respective semi finals on Friday, and it was evident that the Qatar side were not as motivated as they could have been. Nepal made a creditable 166 off their allotted overs, Qatar on the other hand collapsed without any real moments of note. All out for 70ish.

That was it. The tournament was over, tomorrow we were going home.

Monday

It seems like it's over before it's begun. My bags are packed, the final farewells have been said, and I've checked out of my room. So many new people, so many new experiences, and somehow you wish that it could continue. But the harsh reality was that we would not all meet again, the tournament had been used as a selection process for the ICC Associates and Affiliates Umpires Panel.

The scorers hard at work.

Naturally I hope that all 20 umpires will be selected, but that's not my choice, and at the time of writing, no results have been published. But the spirit engendered between all the umpires was unique, and reflected in the amount of emails waiting on my computer from all over the world, the guys all expressing their pride at having taken part in such an experience. The offers, "If you are ever in Malawi/ Botswana/ Japan (substitute any country umpires came from) give me a call and we will look after you". I think that it is something strangely unique to umpires, you may not see them for 4 years, but you pick up the threads of your last conversation as if it was yesterday. I hope we will all meet again, it may not be for a while, but when we do, we'll certainly have a good time!