On tour in Sri Lanka

The first test at Galle had everything one desires for test cricket. Intensity, superior skills levels and some enterprising captaincy were the order of the day.

One very important ingredient that often does not get the credit it deserves is the pitch quality.

This pitch, although it turned from day two and from that moment gave encouragement to the ‘tweakers’, provide intrigue. It is quite rare to sit down after a test match and be able to reflect on five days of quality entertainment.

Speaking of entertainment, off the park has also been a rare treat.

Ian Chappell, Dean Jones and myself have been sharing a villa inside the old for which again has enabled satisfactory reflection.

Most nights after a day’s play found us sitting around the plunge pool sharing a smooth bottle of red, listening to Ian stroll down memory lane with some of the true characters he played with.

It may come as no surprise to most that the name Doug Walters came up consistently. Doug was an extremely talented middle-order batsman during Chappell’s captaincy reign, who was legendary at burning the candle at both ends.

Ian simple describes him as a freak!

As far as individuals go, let alone sportsmen, his beer consumption was insatiable.

Ian reflected on one story during the time that rest days in test matches were abolished. Doug, as you can imagine was a big wrap for those rest days and without fail used to utilise the night before the rest day to the maximum.

On one such occasion he decided to paint the town red and had a real bender. His entertainment for the night continued until the early hours of the morning and was only curtailed by the unsettling experience of the sun coming up at about 7.00am.

Yes you guessed it… Doug was still in the pub!

It was about this time that the landlord arrived for the start of a day’s shift and informed Doug that maybe it was time to get a bit of shut eye.

Walters readily agreed. As he made his way back to the team hotel he suddenly devised a plan and asked for the receptionist to book him a wake-up call for the 8 o’clock.

She booked the call and told him to enjoy his sleep and assured him she would call him that evening.

Doug was horrified and demanded the phone call that morning and not in the evening.

The receptionist, taken a little aback, then told Walters that it was now 7.45am!

His sharp return was, “yes that’s right, you can’t expect me to play test cricket without any sleep can you?”

He got runs that day!!!