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The author at the Abu Dhabi golf championship © Richard Kemp

It may have taken over two weeks but we have finally witnessed an English victory in the Emirates. Sadly it didn?t come from our cricket side that had a proud recent record before a crazy two hours on the fourth afternoon. Our English victory came in the shape of Robert Rock who was victorious in the Abu Dhabi golf tournament on Sunday afternoon.

The day out at the golf was a bonus that has ensured my tour ended on a positive note. I wasn?t the only one watching another sport to forget about the disappointment of the cricket. As I watched Tiger Woods just miss a bunker from the fourth tee, I found myself surrounded by half the Sky Sports commentary team. David ?Bumble? Lloyd, always keen on a chat, quipped, ?There are worse ways to spend a day off than this!?

I certainly wasn?t in a positive mood whilst watching our chase. Watching from the stands as wicket after wicket fell, you had a sinking feeling that this was going to go down in folklore as one of England?s worst displays. I expected a backlash after the Dubai performance, which Stuart Broad and Monty Panesar gave us, but sadly, our batsmen let us down again. It?s a strange feeling watching your side capitulate under pressure, and by the time Jimmy Anderson was caught on the boundary to end the misery, I knew it was time to go home.

I?ve left the UAE with mixed feelings. On one hand the Abu Dhabi match was everything I look for in an overseas Test (minus the England second-innings collapse, of course). The Test itself couldn?t have been much more dramatic, and to be played out in front of a large number of Pakistani expats made it feel like a proper sporting event.

On the other hand I am more than happy not to be returning to Dubai Sports City for the final match. Having time to reflect and look back after the success of the time spent in Abu Dhabi, Dubai really wasn?t a great spectator experience. Perhaps the next match, which starts on a Friday, will have more support to create some sort of an atmosphere in what is undoubtedly one of my least favourite international venues. It?s a shame a match couldn?t have been scheduled in Sharjah, where Pakistan traditionally get good support.

For the time being for me it is back to the 5.30am alarm call and my widescreen television for the rest of this tour. Perhaps England will finally win a Test on this trip. The odds must have improved, given that one chap I met on the flight home has just completed his tenth Test match overseas spread over 14 years and has yet to see England win!

Perhaps that is what makes being an England fan so great. Even if the team wins, loses or draws, we keep coming back for more. Watching your cricket side abroad is a great experience. If there is anyone reading this that is thinking of doing it, go ahead and do it. Even if your team?s top order keeps collapsing you?ll have no regrets!

South African-born bald cricketers - hard to differentiate © Getty Images

The last few days summed up why I watch the England side abroad.

Not only has the cricket picked up from an English point of view, but perhaps more importantly there is also a feeling in the air that the tour has finally started. After the disappointment of Dubai and its fairly soulless surrounds, the Sheikh Zayed Stadium has provided three brilliant days of spectator happiness.

The stadium, albeit in the middle of a desert (like everything here), is close enough to a major highway to make it reasonably accessible for both locals and tourists. With its grassy banks and seated ends, one covered and one open to the elements, all preferences are catered for. Happily the English support has respected local customs asking us to keep our shirts on during the cricket.

I mentioned in the previous update that word was the weekend days of Friday and Saturday would be well attended. By close of day three, the first weekend day, the ground must have been at least two-thirds full. From a cricket purist point of view, it was a joy to see the thousands of Pakistani cricket fans streaming into the ground throughout the day, taking advantage of the authorities? brilliant decision to open the gates for free throughout the Test.

It is pretty clear to me that Test cricket is alive and well. If you play a match based around a weekend and make the ticketing simple and affordable, people will turn up in numbers.

The banter between the England fans and our own players has also picked up thanks to the development of the tour as well as the arrival of several dozen supporters for the last two matches of the series.

Now, we England fans pride ourselves on being pretty up to speed with the players in our side. We chant for them, we encourage them and we are even seen on occasions celebrating or commiserating with them after a Test. Before the first Test started a number of us decided to gatecrash the final net session and have a chat with some of the players. One member of the Barmy Army who will remain nameless (but can be found wearing the full Union Jack attire) decided it would be a good idea to make the effort to chat with who he thought was the Barmy Army favourite Matty Prior. In front of several shell-shocked witnesses, he cried some words of encouragement towards the England wicketkeeper, before realising too late it was Jonathan Trott!

Prior already has his own personal cheerleader in the Barmy Army - a stalwart who goes by the nickname Deco. For the past few tours Prior has been greeted on a daily basis with shouts of ?Morning Matty!? from Deco across Test grounds all over the world. Prior will always wave back, loving the support he receives from his No. 1 fan. On one occasion in Adelaide the cry came about an hour into the morning session ? Matty turned towards the stand where the shout had emanated and gestured where an imaginary watch would be on his wrist, before putting his hands on his hips suggesting ?Where have you been!?

After the Dubai incident, our nameless supporter has since adopted a similar ?Morning Trotty!? greeting which has gone down so well that the rest of the players have been seen clapping and laughing along with the running joke ? all whilst the game is in progress!

Even umpire Steve Davis has joined in with the banter, raising his hat to us as Billy, our famous trumpeter, played the Barmy Army?s own version of ?Waltzing Matilda? for Australia Day. If only he knew the words we sung?..

With Pakistani four down overnight, the promise of a four-day victory beckons. If we pull it off, the celebrations tomorrow will surely be both inside and outside of the hotel bar?s happy hour.

Richard Kemp is in the UAE on his ninth cricket tour with the England side. Since his first tour in 2004, his love for the game has made him max out several credit cards visiting five Test-playing nations, including three tours of India and all five of last winter?s Ashes Test matches. He keeps a travel blog of his journeys here

When in Abu Dhabi, take your cycle to the F1 race track © Getty Images

This feeling is reflected among my fellow supporters ? slightly twitchy from the lack of cricket, and ever so slightly uninspired by our surrounds. It?s not that we aren?t enjoying being on tour - the takings in the hotel bar reflect that - it?s just that the UAE has never been on any of our ?must-visit-places-before-we-die? lists.

For many, Dubai, just like England?s batting, was a bit of a disappointment. The ground itself was comfortable enough, but like so many new purpose-built sporting arenas, it was in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by incomplete buildings, the place had a slightly soulless feel to it. It was a world away from Adelaide or the Antigua Recreation Ground in St Johns, where people can walk up to the ground from the city centre as they please. I guess everywhere needs to start somewhere, and perhaps in time Dubai Sports City can build a history of its own ? after all this was only the third Test it has hosted.

Abu Dhabi promises much more. The match starts on a Wednesday, meaning the likelihood of more Pakistani support over the weekend. The match is free entry for all and with Pakistan one-up in the series, I expect more backing for the ?home? side. We?ve also found some more worthwhile activities to do away from the hotel?s happy hours, including a trip to our favourite Sheikh?s mosque, which is among the top ten largest mosques in the world. The ground, the main road through town and the mosque - the way everything is named after him, anyone would think he built the place.

Our time has also been spent discussing whether England can turn things around. The level of confidence has definitely dropped after the ten- wicket defeat in Dubai. Many of us believe our side can replicate Boxing Day 2010, where England bounced back from defeat in Perth in the most memorable of manners.

In the meantime I must dash. I have a date with a push bike and a formula one racetrack. I never thought I?d say that on tour...

Richard Kemp is in the UAE on his ninth cricket tour with the England side. Since his first tour in 2004, his love for the game has made him max out several credit cards visiting five Test-playing nations, including three tours of India and all five of last winter?s Ashes Test matches. He keeps a travel blog of his journeys here

Cricket matches being played out in Palm Diera © Richard Kemp

If I am honest with myself I secretly hoped the Dubai Test would be wrapped up inside four days. With just a day?s build-up in Dubai before the Test started and a short taxi ride booked down to Abu Dhabi the day after what was scheduled to be day five, I considered the chance to have time to explore the sprawling metropolis a bonus.

However, what I did not wish for was the toothless, formless batting display from England on the third day that reminded me of being at Sabina Park, Jamaica, back in 2009.

We will always support the England team wherever we go, but sometimes watching batsmen after batsmen gift their wicket to the opposition is pretty hard to stomach. I had thought England would repeat their efforts in Brisbane, where they trailed heavily after the first innings and batted properly second time around. KP?s dismissal, caught on the boundary for 0, summed up a pretty grim few days inside the Dubai Sports City Stadium.

But to me more worrying than the form of England?s top six, was the lack of supporters for Pakistan inside the ground. Without the thousand or so English out here in the desert, the ground would have been empty throughout most of the Test.

Having the time to explore, we took a metro on Friday all the way to the north of Dubai, to a place by the coast called Palm Diera. Here, we found all the Pakistani cricket fans that the PCB hoped would fill the stadiums in the UAE. It was a sight I imagine repeated across cities like Multan or Faisalabad - a barren patch of land where over half a dozen games of cricket were being played out simultaneously with some intensity.

I walked over to the game being played out nearest to us. There was an umpire, a scorer (naturally sat in the comfort of a wheelbarrow) a set of stumps made out of bricks and a boundary marked out by a line drawn in the sand. This was a different side to Dubai than you see on the television; migrant workers from the local fish markets were taking time out between shifts to play cricket.

I spoke to a young guy who had sledged us on arrival with catcalls of ?Saeed Ajmal, doosra, doosra!?about why he wasn?t in the ground supporting his heroes. In broken English he explained that he and his friends were too busy working and sending money home to their families in Pakistan and couldn?t justify a day?s lost wages to watch the cricket.

And I guess therein lies the problem. The interest in Test cricket is definitely there ? they admitted to watching every highlights programme they could. They knew how many runs Misbah-ul-Haq had made recently and that Umar Gul looks fitter now than ever. They knew Kevin Pietersen shouldn?t have hit that careless shot so early on in his innings and that Ian Bell was struggling to pick Ajmal?s doosra. Unlike the English fans who are here in the UAE on holiday, these fans are here working.

Since the weekend days here are Friday and Saturday, perhaps the authorities could look at scheduling the games to start around these days as opposed toTuesday? After all, if England bat as naively in Abu Dhabi as they did here, even a Wednesday start might not give adequate time for the expat workers to make the most of the time off they have.

My prediction prior to the series was that England would struggle to get going during this Test series. I also envisaged that we?d win in Abu Dhabi. I may have already got the scoreline incorrect, but if the rest follows suit, at least we will avoid a series defeat.

Richard Kemp is in the UAE on his ninth cricket tour with the England side. Since his first tour in 2004, his love for the game has made him max out several credit cards visiting five Test-playing nations, including three tours of India and all five of last winter?s Ashes Test matches. He keeps a travel blog of his journeys here

England supporters in UAE raise a toast to George "the Podge" Summerside © Richard Kemp

Day one of a Test series is always an exciting time. In Dubai the feeling among the several dozen stalwart England supporters was slightly different to the usual ?let?s act like a child on Christmas day morning because we are watching Test cricket abroad again? syndrome that I?ve become accustom to over the years.

I wrote in my first update about the recent passing of one of our own, George ?The Podge? Summerside.

The first time I met Podge was back in 2007 on the outfield of the SSC Cricket Ground in Colombo. I?d manage to convince a couple of security men to let me into the ground despite the fact the gates weren?t open for some time yet. It was early AM; at least two hours before the start of play. Sunil, my favourite tuk-tuk driver in the whole of Sri Lanka, had dropped me off at the ground particularly early in order for me to beat the rush for prime ?flagwatch? position. Flagwatch is a race against time. The mission is to get your flag in a position where every time the TV camera focusses in on a batsman concentrating hard on the bowler running in, your flag magically appears in the background, giving the watching world a view of your team or town.
Basically, anywhere just behind the bowler?s arm guarantees coverage every other over.

Podge was the master of this. Everywhere he went, his flag went. And without fail it was always behind the bowler?s arm. Despite my rather heavy head, thanks to a night on the local beer, I remember our first encounter like it was yesterday. He shook my hand firmly, before commenting in his unmistakeable broad northern English accent that ?I deserved to steal his spot seeing as I was up so bright and early!? He laughed loudly, shaking my hand again before slipping a few rupees to one of the Sri Lankan lads on groundstaff to look after his flag until he got back from his breakfast!

From Ahmedabad to Antigua, a Test match featuring the English wouldn?t be complete without hundreds of flags being erected on fences, walls and trees. With the kind permission of Podge?s? family, one of his closest touring buddies, Kev, has bought the ?Podgy Roker? flag with him to Dubai as a fitting tribute to one of England?s finest followers. It was quite an emotional sight to see his infamous flag blowing in the wind today, naturally in prime flagwatch position.

The time was 2pm and back in the UK some four hours behind us in the UAE, his funeral was starting. After some discussions with the stadium management a message was read out over the PA system informing all spectators of his untimely passing and that they were invited to join in a minute?s applause celebrating his life. As the whole ground stood to applaud a fellow cricket lover, our very own batsman, Matty Prior and Graeme Swann, showed their respect by looking over to us and clapping too. Several of the Pakistani cricketers also joined in.

Only in a sport as magical as cricket would something like this happen during play. An international match briefly interrupted to celebrate the life of someone who loved the game. After all, you?d have to love the game as much as Podge did to visit places as far flung as Georgetown and Chittagong.

I wasn?t there but I knew he was ? after all, that famous flag kept appearing on my TV screen.

Richard Kemp is in the UAE on his ninth cricket tour with the England side. Since his first tour in 2004, his love for the game has made him max out several credit cards visiting five Test-playing nations, including three tours of India and all five of last winter?s Ashes Test matches. He keeps a travel blog of his journeys here

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