Ian Jones, slight-framed, had to change three buses to reach the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) Academy ground from Benaulim ahead of the host’s first day’s play against Tamil Nadu in the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy on Friday
“Half past six,” he says on being asked when he left in the morning.
Wearing a GCA tee, he could have been easily mistaken for an association member. He’d pulled up a chair and sat down on the second floor of the complex that houses the dressing rooms.
He occasionally looked through 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,” said the 64-year-old, who looks younger.
Jones hails from Yorkshire, but has been visiting Goa every year 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 point to attend all the domestic matches that Goa plays at home. “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 teams over the years, he said: “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 played. “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 favourite player or memory, he said: “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 local journalist spots him and proceeds to ask if he was sick since he hadn’t come for the last match versus Punjab. He says he’d been to the first 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 with his late wife, with whom he used to run a catering company. “It’s been five years since she passed away.”
Back home, he’d always been following Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. “Trent Bridge is my favourite (ground), where Nottinghamshire play.”
Asked for his favourite player of all time, he said, “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 favourite cricket memory at home, he said: “1981, against Australia, when (Ian) Botham got 150 (149 n.o.) and (Bob) Willis got eight wickets (8/43). England followed on, Headingley.”
He said that he would come for all days of the match and was wrapping up to be ready to leave as soon as the day’s play got over. Asked by what time he would return, he said, “Half past seven.”
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