Light Dragoons dust off their whites for tour of a lifetime

7th February 2006

The 20 cricketers from the Light Dragoons will play matches in Dehli and Mumbai as well as paying a visit to the Light Dragoons' sister regiment, the Indian 1st Horse (Skinner's Horse) at Hisar, in northern India.

Major Seb Pollington, Deputy Commanding Officer, is the driving force behind the tour, which is being funded through a combination of regimental funds, Army lottery grants and by the soldiers themselves:

"As a lifelong cricket fan I'm thrilled to have been appointed to lead this team on tour," he explained. "The Light Dragoons are a prominent cricket regiment and this is the opportunity of a lifetime, something normally only professional sportsmen get a chance to do; and especially to India where cricket is a part of their way of life.

"The whole team is incredibly enthusiastic. There has been a programme of training and preparation and everyone is working hard to make sure the tour runs smoothly."

Much of the travel during the tour will be overland, a deliberate choice according to Seb:

"The decision to travel overland, even if only by train, was made really to experience the real India and introduce a sense of adventure. It would certainly have been possible to fly to the airport and get picked up and live on a comfortable army base when we got there if we had wanted to."

While in India, the Dragoons will be making a special visit to a regiment that they share a special bond with:

"Meeting up with Skinner's Horse represents a rare opportunity to maintain links which have been stretched because of our high operational tempo in recent years. Like the Light Dragoons, they are a strong cavalry regiment and it will be fascinating to see how they do business - and clearly there's an open invitation for them to bring an exchange team to the UK to experience British military life in the future."

Despite it being mid-winter in the UK, with freezing temperatures being expereinced across the country, all team members have worked hard to be ready for the tour:

"Preparations have been going very well. Every member of the touring party has a role to play with training, kit, fitness, vaccinations, visas and more. The Light Dragoons recently returned FROM a busy deployment in Iraq so time has been tight. Interestingly, we were integrated with an Australian regiment in Iraq so there were opportunities out there to play, despite the conditions!"

Indeed, the regiment has only recently returned FROM Iraq:

It has been a busy few years for the Light Dragoons. The tour of Iraq was the second for the regiment after also deploying to the region in 2003. Prior to that a squadron was deployed to Bosnia for six months and many of the regiment were also involved in the UK covering the national firefighters strike of 2002/03. The regiment will shortly begin training for another possible operational deployment to Afghanistan in 2007.

So as the cricketers gear up to leave for India on 12 February, they will be hoping for a successful tour. According to Seb, it is no coincidence that they will be in Mumbai at exactly the same time as the England cricket team will be playing a match against Indian opposition.

"As luck would have it our tour does coincide with the England Cricket team tour of India! There are definitely plans afoot to watch one of their games - whether the England team will return the favour we don't yet know!