The Barmy Army should be bigger in Mohali

Fresh from the two day game in Mumbai were myself, feeling a very long way from home, and Nicky King, a vet from Liverpool and the only female amongst us.

There was Jon Dyson, 23, who had already on the tour bizarrely found himself involved in an early morning yoga session with Bishen Bedi's Delhi side.

And there was Steve McVeagh, 28, an almost professional wanderer of the world, who gave up the relative comfort of the train in order to save a few rupees by tackling the 17-hour journey by local bus.

Steve's claim to fame is that he apparently managed to see the whole of England's tour of Pakistan last winter- warm-up games, tests AND one-day internationals- on a budget of less than �300!

Prison warder

Added to the four of us were Patch, fresh from a shift in his day job as a warder at Wormwood Scrubs.

He feared he might be the only person committed enough to make the trip south and was mighty relieved to see fellow English fans in the crowd.

And finally there was Mike McLean, another veteran of last year's successful tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

He has put his plan to cycle around India and then pedal home overland back to England on hold whilst the England team are in India.

England's touring fans are a raucous bunch

Nicky chose the palatial surroundings of the England team hotel, the Taj Krishna, as her accommodation (at a knock down price of $60 a night).

But Patch foolishly accepted the advice of his airport taxi driver and ended up in one of Andhra Pradesh's most expensive hotels for three nights!

However, it was back to basics for the rest of us.

Indeed, so much so that Steve found that his 100 rupee (�1.50) a night room could be quite adequately replaced nearby by a room costing him just Rs60 a night!

At this point it needs noting that if cockroaches the size of small children scuttling around your bathroom are not your cup of tea then perhaps India on a shoestring is not for you!

Daunting trip

With the game done and dusted the six of us faced our most daunting task of the tour so far - to get from Hyderabad to Jaipur.

The quickest journey time is just shy of some 40 hours travel overland and the tour itinerary allows just two clear days between the games.

It is likely to be as much of a helter-skelter journey as Indian surface transport allows.

Find out who, and how, we made it in the next instalment as the 'real deal' starts in Chandigarh....