With a lot of perseverance, tour manager Such was able to get a tour group of 10 guys. The travel to Freiburg had it‘s own hardships for some of the players, as they had to get a rental car and a couple of our players chose to leave their Passports at home (already taking the first tour fine credit away) and carry paper copies of IDs with them. Nevertheless, after almost 2-3 hours delay, they were able to make the long drive to Freiburg and get to the hotel.
Some early birds were already in town and having their beers while waiting for the rest of the group to join them. Some fine pre-tour drinking took place and the initial round of fines were given. Tour newbies Kabir and Atmo were introduced to the traditions of tour fines, and taking some fines as well.
The 1st Game day was at Basel, where we had a start at 9:00AM (keeping in mind watching the T-20 Worldcup finals). Game started as planned and we were put to bowl first. Kabir and Joy opened the bowling and got some quick wickets in the opening spell. Joy ended his long 8 over spell taking 3 Basel wickets. Later on Such used almost all his resources on hand to complete the designated overs with 195 runs on board to chase. Opening with Joy and Simrat the batting MCC‘s Plans didn‘t work out well, as the Basel opening bowler swung the ball both ways to get rid of Simmy and Rohit for cheap. Later Joy and Rahul build a partnership with Rahul displaying some solid defensive skills. But soon Joy was caught in front of stumps and the partnership was broken. Captain Such and Rahul added some valuable runs, but Rahul was dismissed and it started the batting collapse for MCC. Veith hit some promising shots and runs towards the end, but MCC didn‘t survive long, getting allout for 67 runs. Man of the match from both sides were presented with gifts from both the teams. Marked the end to our Basel day.
Back in Freiburg, we found spots for the whole team at an Irish bar where the Football Euro cup was shown and they gave us the option to watch cricket on one of their screens. We were joined by a couple of South african fans to make the evening more interesting. India winning the World cup gave some relief to most of us otherwise a disappointing day.
Game day 2, MCC boys are fresh and roaring to go for a win, arrived at a cloudy, over cast Freiburg ground. Expectations to get a game was very low as per the forecast. But we didn‘t lose hope. Started the game with Freiburg batting first and made 166 in 30 odd overs (reduced by our very nice hosts to give us some batting). Kabir stood out among the bowlers by taking 3 Freiburg wickets and Atmo showed some fielding skills where he fielded the ball with his lips. In reply to their batting performance, MCC started the batting as usual with a start of collapse, but Atmo the hitman started hitting straight sixes against the Freiburg bowlers and made 24 runs in no time. Joined him Captain Such was in no mood to lose this time and to be grumpy. Such held long partnerships with Atmo and Joy, and gave glimpses of hope for an MCC win. But with scores of 31 and 21, Such and Joy were back in pavilion and the replacement player that Freiburg gave us gave us some last moment hopes, but we fell 32 runs short in reply.
The grumpy head was ceremoniously awarded back to MCC after the game. Alas, during an accident while opening the fully packed Boot of the car, the Grumpy head trophy fell on the concrete and was broken(which finally was seen to smile among the shattered pieces that we collected). We had to give a proper burial to our Grumpy head, but it will remain in our hearts for long.
