A Nepal batsmen swings at a short ball at Port Soif. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0581626)

PORT SOIF witnessed its first senior international cricket match yesterday. It was a proud day for the Rovers Club as it played host to Nepal and the Bahamas.

The two countries are in the island preparing for the ICC World League Division Five that kicks off later this week in Jersey. The still young west-coast square was to the satisfaction of the visitors.

‘It’s nice here. The boundary is quite big and the wicket is coming on fast,’ said the Nepal team manager, Tanka Panaru. ‘The swing is there because of the breeze. The weather is almost the same here [as Nepal] but the breeze is quite cold.’

It is not unusual to hear people comment about the wind down at Port Soif. The ‘Port Soif Doctor’ as it is known during the summer – named after the Fremantle Doctor at the Waca in Perth – blows over the ground from Grandes Rocques. But unusually yesterday, the wind was blowing from the north, making it rather chilly.