Cricket crazy? Not in Chittagong

CHITTAGONG: The view from the top is breathtaking. As the rickety little aircraft hovers over, waiting for ground clearance to land, one is sure to get bewildered by the beauty of the city. Crisscrossing rivers, lush green hillocks, dense forests, all merging into the sea -- no wonder Chinese poet Huen Tsang, way back in 7 th century AD, described Chittagong as "a sleeping beauty emerging from mists and water".

Once you touch the ground though, reality takes over. The pollution makes your eyes boil, the traffic is maddening, the narrow lanes and by-lanes are teeming with people. This is after all Bangladesh's commercial capital, its major water link to the world, and its industrial hub.

The surprising part, of course, is that few seem interested in cricket here. Even the autowallahs, who seem to only speak and understand Bengali, and the common man on the streets are not aware that a match is taking place here in a day's time. They have heard of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar though, but not about Mohd Ashraful. Or Habibul Bashar, for that matter. Quite a contrast from the scene in capital Dhaka, where even the room service boy had a comment to make on the Bangladesh team's World Cup performance.

The scene at the venue proper, the half-complete Bir Shrestha Shahid Ruhul Amin Stadium on the outskirts of the city close to the beach, is no different. Barring members of the production house Nimbus, and the hurrying ground staff scurrying from one end of the ground to the other, there's hardly anyone else. Now one realizes why the auto fellow made us tour the entire city to discover the place.

This is a fairly new venue. The old one, Mohd Aziz cricket stadium in the heart of the city, is now mainly used for junior cricket. India have never played here before, while Bangladesh have lost two and won one in their three appearances here.

The curator, Shafiul Alam Belal, has an interesting tale to tell about the pitch. He says the behaviour of the surface changes with the tide, as the venue is very close to the sea. "The high tide results in extra moisture getting absorbed by the surface. The pace bowlers can then hope of getting some swing," he says. But the advantage is only for those who are really good with their trade. "Only those who hit the deck and have pace. Syed Russel won't be able to extract much advantage from it, he's accurate but has no pace. But someone like Mashrafe Mortaza can get some assistance early on as the pitch has some bounce. Otherwise it's a good batting surface. And in any case there's no high tide right now," he adds.

So the toss doesn't really matter? "It won't make much of a difference. But if I were the captain, I would bat first without the slight hesitation," is his parting verdict.

It's a different atmosphere altogether at the team hotel, in another extreme corner of the city. No there's no crowd here either. A motley group of mostly Indian journos is parked at the main lobby, in anticipation of some 'exclusive' byte. It seems like an endless wait. Thirty minutes have gone by, but there's no action. Suddenly, there's some commotion. "Hey, there's Yuvraj…," someone points out. "Yuvi, Yuvi…" There he has vanished again.

The biggest 'villain', according to some, is the Indian team's administrative manager Surendra Bhave. "He's forever incommunicado. What's the use of keeping him with the team if he's not any help to us. Let Niranjan Shah (BCCI secretary) come tomorrow, we'll tell him to send him back," suggests someone.

Shah, in fact, is scheduled to land here on Monday. The official version is he's coming to watch the final ODI. But the real reason could be something else. With Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly too expected to arrive on the same day for the two-Test series, the first of which begins here on May 18, Shah could be there to play the peace broker's role. There have been plenty of talks of groupism in the team, with a recent sting operation even suggesting that both Sachin and Sourav were not on talking terms with skipper Rahul Dravid during the World Cup, and Shah's presence could have something to do with that.

The Indian and Bangladeshi teams, who arrived here in the morning, are scheduled to have practice sessions on Monday morning. With India having already won the series, the match is only of academic interest. While interim manager Ravi Shastri and skipper Dravid have vowed to make a clean sweep of the three-match series, Dav Whatmore, for whom Tuesday's match will be his last ODI as Bangladesh coach, has his pride at stake. Can he sign off with a win? Our prediction is as good as yours.