Unexpected Cricket

Chapter one

 
3AM

Trevor Bayliss AKA the coach of the England Cricket team  pushed open the doors of each and every players rooms. "Wake up and come out "! he shouted .
11 drowsy cricketers heaved their lazy bones and stumbled out of bed . Talk about Steven Finn , he literally fell down and when he got up , his hair all over his eyes , he lay on bed again until Trevor had to come pinch him on the nose . Ian Bell had was continuously asking the coach about why they were awake at 3AM . Was there a fire or something ? Trevor hadn't answered him so Ian walked to the captain's room for answers . Maybe Alastair Cook knew something .
Alastair was sitting on his bed , staring dreamily at the curtains on the opposite side , though they weren't that fascinating . He checked his phone for the time and slammed it on his thigh as he found out the time he had woken up on .
Ian asked him the question .
"I have no idea what's going on in here ", Alastair replied , getting out of bed .
He was dressed in a Mickey Mouse T-shirt which was shorter and tighter on his frame . Probably Joe Root's shirt . Well , yes it was . And pajamas which were awkwardly folded at the foot wrists .
"You look horrendous wearing Joe Root's shirt and Stuart Broad's pajamas ", Ian joked .
Alastair gave a deep sigh and loudly cleared his throat . Yes , he had been snoring through out his sleep . He smiled at Ian and together they met Trevor and the others at the hotel lounge .

Alastair scanned the players who were nearly looking dead . He was as well , but it was a lesser nearly dead . Alastair had been up on this time , many times before . He was used to it .
After scanning everyone to check if they were present as the coach had ordered him to , he came to a realization that James Anderson wasn't present .
"Coach , where's Jimmy "? Inquired Alastair . Had the coach allowed him to sleep and forcefully woken everyone else up ?
"He is not waking up at all . You try and wake him up ", Trevor replied.

***
Waking James up was the most difficult task in the world . The most daring , even . Joe , himself , once tried waking him up , only to find himself leaving the room with a red cheek . He had been slapped . Ian was sent in next and he had been a bit clever . He had worn an oxygen mask on his face , not because of less oxygen content , there was oxygen , but that he wanted to save himself from James's slap . He too failed . Everyone who tried , failed . It was impossible to wake him up at times he didn't actually want to wake up on . " I'll only wake up when I feel like it ", James had once said .

For Alastair , it was his first time on this complicated task to wake the bowler .
Having known James for years , he knew what James was about to do next several times . They had been sharing a room ever since they had been in this hotel , until last week that James decided to shift to a spare room , for he was tired of having to sleep on the same bed with someone else , fed up too.
Alastair gradually opened the door of James's room . The bowler was fast asleep , with a duvet all over him . Taking up all the courage which was supposedly left in him, the captain yanked the duvet off .
James made a few groaning sounds and turned his side , sat up for a few seconds and pulled the duvet over him again.
"Wake up Jimmy ", Alastair whispered harshly into his ear. It was 3:30 AM . Alastair cleared his throat and tried again . He did not even know why he was scared right now . He had known the swinger for years . He had no right to be frightened of him . Worse still , was the odd clothes Alastair was wearing . He knew James was going to get up and make fun of him . Joe Root's shirt and Stuart Broad's pajamas, well .
Alastair then yelled . Yelled , yes . "WAKE UP JIMMY "!
James suddenly bolted upright . He looked around , sleepily and rolled his eyes on the clock , searching for the time .
"SCREW YOU "! He shouted and muttered a few more ugly words.
"The coach woke everyone else up , come on ", Alastair told him .
James growled . "Why "? he asked .
"I have no idea , let's find out ", Alastair replied and he left the room , followed by a very sleepy and grumpy fast bowler .

The players gathered around Trevor as he got ready for business .
"First of all thank you for waking up in such an emergency . It is that Cricket Australia are coming to this hotel , should arrive here in a few minutes . You will welcome them . Stand in a line and shake hands just as you do after a game . Ok ? And you'll be sharing a hotel . And a room . One English with one Australian and so on . Most of all , behave . No groaning and moaning allowed . However , me and the Aussie coach will have different rooms . You shall be kind with them as they are your guests . Clear "? Trevor explained as lots of extremely sleepy plus astonished faces looked at him.
"Now can we sleep"? Inquired James , digging his face into Alastair's shoulder . The coach shook his head but James did not notice . He jerked his head up from Alastair's shoulder . "You smell like Rooty "!
Alastair did not respond so James continued , "Which is absolutely disgusting ..... Oh wait are you wearing his shirt "?
Alastair nodded his head . James examined the shirt and looked at the pajamas . "Broady , eh ", he grinned .
Alastair started pacing toward his room . He had to change this awkward outfit . He changed into an old grey Adidas T-shirt and blue sweatpants . He was first thinking of wearing some jeans but they were going to go back to sleep anyway.
The rest of the players had gone to improve their terrible condition so that they could be good enough to welcome the Australians inside .
As soon as they were done , they sat on the lounge sofas , their eyes fixed on the front door .
"I never knew those Australians could be so annoying ", grunted Stuart . He reached for a magazine on the side table , opened it and started to read it. It was a clothes magazine . He flipped through all the pages from the back until he reached the front cover . "613 men's collection ", he read the title out loud . A picture of James Anderson was photographed on the title page. And Stuart couldn't get his eyes off it . James was known to be the most handsome guy in the group when he was in a full suit , coat , tie , shirt and all . And when he was smiling . Not grumpy .
"Oh Stuart , come of it , will you "? A voice inquired . Stuart turned around to see Nick Compton sitting beside him .
"Sorry ", Stuart muttered and tossed the magazine toward the side table from where he had first taken it from .

It was still a matter of waiting for the Australian Cricket members to arrive . No one was talking , there was silence all around . Alastair kept on looking at the time on his phone and at the door until he became so annoyed of waiting , he decided to leave the lounge . Just as he got up , James grabbed hold of the back of his shirt.
"Where are you going "? he asked .
"To my room ", replied the captain .
James pulled him back until he was sat on the couch again . "Stay here ", James demanded .
A few minutes later , there was a KNOCK on the door .
Alastair freed himself from James's awkward grip on his arm and walked to the front door . He opened it and in poured the Australians . They were already walking up and down , here and there in the hotel , with all their stuff searching for a room .
Shocked England Cricketers looked astonishingly at them . They hadn't even had time to welcome them inside , they had already started pacing up and down.
Above all the shocked faces , Joe suddenly chimed in , "I wonder who'll be sharing a room with who "!
Everyone set their eyes on the vice captain . James swayed his head from side to side . "I don't ..I mean , isn't it going to be weird sharing a room with some other person you don't know that well".
No one answered . The Australian captain Steve Smith appeared suddenly . "Hi ", he said and Alastair Cook's men started staring at him .
"I said hi ", Steve made a scowl. "Well , stop staring at me ".

"Let's go sleep ", Alastair suggested and he turned to go to his room .
All the rest of his team got up from the sofas and made way to their rooms. Steve stared at them in astonishment as they shoved past him hurriedly . "Hello , isn't there something called guest treatment "? inquired Steve . "Alastair don't you know how to ..."
"Soooorrrryyy", Alastair replied ,loudly, from his room , yawning .

The Australain shook his head and walked towards Alastair's room .