Ian Basey’s diaries: From sanctioning McEnroe to meeting Rajiv Gandhi at 10 Janpath and procuring a Federer autograph for Harbhajan | Cricket News

When the Indian team walks into their dressing room at Adelaide Oval on Friday afternoon, the bright smiling face of Ian Basey, the change room attendant for visiting teams for 18 years, would welcome them. The monkey-gate series in 2008, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid’s swansong in 2012, the 2014 Virat Kohli’s captaincy Test, the 2018 triumph, and the pandemic game when India were bowled out for 36–Basey has been there, seen it and done that.Not just cricket, he refereed a Davis Cup game and once met the Indian Prime Miner Rajiv Gandhi at the famous 10 Janpath address in New Delhi. A detective sergeant in his earlier life, at a tennis game once in Sydney in 1983, he reprimanded John McEnroe for abusing a line-judge. Handling cricketers, then, must be a piece of cake.
“Don’t you ask about that monkey-gate series,” he says with a put-on stern voice, probably the voice he uses to tell the players “put the wet used towels in the labelled bin, please!”. Basey then carries on, “Ivt’s not as if I was there in the secret-doors meetings then, but all I can tell you is the team was ably led the very-dignified Anil Kumble,” he says. The controversy had erupted in the second Test in Sydney but it was in the fourth Test in Adelaide that the matter was decided, and Harbhajan Singh acquitted.
Ian Basey standing on the left of Rajiv Gandhi. (Photo: Sriram Veera)
You prod him for a Harbhajan story. He laughs. “Tell you what I do have a Bhaji story. So he fishes out a brand-new Indian jersey, and tells me, ‘Ian, since you know the tennis world, can you get me an autograph from Roger Federer when he comes for the Australian Open?’ And I go, ‘But Bhaji, he won’t know you’ and he goes, ‘No no, he will, his mother is from South Africa and they know cricket’. So I went and you can guess what happened!” Basey says, smiling.
“Regardless, I get the signature and pack it off to Bhaji. Don’t tell him about Federer’s reaction!” More laughter.
On Wednesday in Mumbai, Sachin Tendulkar addressed a gathering to honour his late coach Ramakant Achrekar where he would tell young cricketers not to abuse their cricket kits. “Ah! Did he, now? I can tell you he is a thorough gentleman, who walked that talk. Not once have I seen him kick a fuss in the dressing room after getting out, even if a bad decision was involved. He would talk about what make he made, and turn the focus on himself and quietly work it out,” he recounts.
“He did make one make though, he left his shoes back in the dressing-room locker in the 2008 Test. And I found it later on. So I keep it, and on his next tour, I tell him. He goes, ‘Can you show them to me in case you still have it?’ Of course I still had them, and he went, “Oh yes, these are my shoes, alright”. And he signed them and gave them to me!”
That 2012-12 series proved to be the last Australian tour for Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman too. “Again, two gentlemen. I remember Rahul’s wife and kids had come. And he asked me at the end of the game, ‘Ian, can I bring my wife and children to the dressing room? Would that be okay?’ As if he needed to ask, of course it was okay.”
Enough about the nice men, what about the naughty misbehaving lot? “No names, Mr nosey-parker journal!” How about the country names, at least? “Nah! But I can tell you there have been instances of television being broken and the wall being dented after getting dismissed. I let them cool down, and then tell them that they have to pay for the damage. And they generally do.”
English prima donnas
At times, there have been players with big egos, but he says it’s part of his job to handle them. “Usually, England’s players are very professional but there have been a couple of prima donnas, and you have to politely but firmly tell them if they err,” he says.
“Look, the way I see cricketers is they are kids who can hit the ball longer than most or bowl faster than most or play a great passing forehand. But essentially, they are kids. I am a grandfather now, and sometimes, the way I behave with my grandkids is how I treat the players. There is no need to be star-struck or something. I am here to do a job—help them with all the little things, logics, so that they can just focus on what they ought to do – play cricket,” he adds.
Sometimes, as was the case with his first game he worked as a dressing-room attendant, when he senses the team is hurting after a loss, he would leave the room immediately. “In my first game in 2006, England had done really well, but would lose that close game as Shane Warne did his thing in the second innings. I realised the mood, and went for a really long walk around the ground and came back very late. You have to give the players the space, sense their mood, and help out in any way you can.”
Suddenly, he rushes inside to a room and fishes out a photograph. “Who do you recognise there?” The then Indian prime miner Rajiv Gandhi is taking a piece of paper from a fancy bowl. “The bearded man to his right is me!” he says in an excited voice. “Let’s keep this conversation only about cricket, please! he says. But he talks about this one moment.
“Mr Gandhi was to pick the lot for the Davis Cup tie. So we were called to his home in New Delhi. I remember the security thoroughly checked our bags for any bombs or such! He was very gracious and charming. No airs. I explained to him the process, and he did that. Good times.”

At times, he also poses fun riddles to the teams. “If asked, I do it often. I would write the riddles on the board, and wait for them to crack it. Like this one: “Twenty Indian heads came to the room, but 24 heads left the room. How?” He sighs at the blank stare and says: “Twenty foreheads, 24, get-it?” And he convulses into this grandfatherly laughter.