Strauss Promises, No More Jelly Bean Encounters for India at Nottingham

Even as the India England series have already entered an interesting phase, the England Test captain is promising a jelly bean free Test for the second Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

Andrew Strauss

The Nottingham Test of 2007 became infamous when some of the England cricketers showed their displeasure for India’s success and in particular, Zaheer Khan’s success against them, that they reportedly threw jelly beans when he came out to bat which only spurred on the Indian fast bowler. Zaheer Khan picked up nine wickets in the match that India won to win the series against England.

Neither India nor England have forgotten about the incident and it has to be said, the media did not forget it either. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, sidestepped a mini jelly bean controversy in the press conference ahead of the second Test after India lost the first Test at Lord’s. But it would be fair to say that jelly beans are perhaps the last thing on his mind at the moment.

Andrew Strauss, the England Test captain, though tried to play down the incident claiming it was a silly incident that did not merit a revisit given that players were immature at the time and did not act in the best interests of England’s own game. Strauss believes the biggest difference with the England of today is that they would never do something that would not constitute worthy or contributing towards England’s ambitions.

The jellybean incident had become something of an unsavoury incident. But it is a chapter England clearly do not want to visit, particularly since they are in a much healthier position, not only in terms of the series with a 1-0 lead with the win at Lord’s but also, because they are very focused on being officially labeled as the no.1 Test team in the world, which is why they are looking to really compete against the reigning no.1 team which happens to be India.

No foul play, nothing below the belt seems to be their take, which all in all should bode well for the game. Jelly bean side, Zaheer Khan won’t take his place but there will be two teams who do not want to give in inch and certainly would not want to provoke the other team into unleashing their strongest retaliation yet.