For the love of the game

As players, coaches, support staff, organisers and media people milled about the practice area of the Mangaung Oval chasing some invisible cheese to win some unfathomable rat race in the lead-up to the second Test, one elderly gentleman stood out. Clad in a red jacket to guard against the Bloemfontein chill and just standing in a corner taking it all in, at first it seemed like he was a hardened journalist who just needs to observe from afar to produce a great copy.

He kept asking the names of each Bangladesh player as they were heading out of the indoor nets on Wednesday, and then wrote the names down. So he was an old-fashioned journalist after all, acquainting himself with this young Test team. But no, the next day, upon further opportunity to talk to him, he turned out to be quite something else; cricket was not just his vocation, but his passion.

"I have watched cricket in 60 venues around the world," Englishman Peter Chismon said on the day before the Test started. When asked whether all of them were Test venues, he replied in the affirmative, as if there could be any other format worth watching.

"I have watched over 200 Test matches, and this completes the South Africa set," said Chismon. He travelled to South Africa from England just to see this series. Part of his bucket list seems to be to visit every Test venue in every country. "I have completed Australia, there are two left in New Zealand, I completed India but now there are new Test venues there.

"I watched Jason Gillespie's double-hundred in Chittagong and the match before that in Fatullah," he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, perhaps in the knowledge that the match in question is a tough one for a Bangladeshi to revisit.

He has been doing this for more than 30 years. His first Test was the England-Pakistan encounter in Birmingham in 1987. The best Test, according to him, that he watched was West Indies' record chase of 418 in Antigua in 2003.

"I was there," he said wistfully.

He then took out a pack of cards containing the names of the Bangladeshi players on them. He was hunting autographs. Taskin Ahmed was on his way to the net and politely informed Chisdon that he will give him the autograph on his way back. Chismon did not have to wait long to get one more name checked off as Subhasish Roy, on his way back from an adventurous session with the willow, paused and signed the card.

The players went on their way, everyone else was milling about, and Chismon was sitting on a chair organising his precious cards.

Having travelled thousands of miles, he will be watching from the stands, and should be one more reason for the Tigers to put up a good show. Even if they do not, this great fan of Test cricket will still probably find a way to enjoy the great game.