Cricket tours are like mazes - mazes of tunnels actually. Weeks are spent in a foreign country, discovering new things and working hard. The hours melt into days which spill over into weeks.

Firdose Moonda

25-Feb-2013

Cricket tours are like mazes - mazes of tunnels actually. Weeks are spent in a foreign country, discovering new things and working hard. The hours melt into days which spill over into weeks. It is exciting and challenging at the same time and you get completely absorbed into what you are doing. Save for the odd phone call back home, glances at the morning news or meals out with colleagues, there is little time or space for anything else, especially not any other cricket.

But on this Australia tour, at least one mind has wandered elsewhere. Patrick Compton, a journalist with the South Africa's Independent Newspaper Group, is the uncle of England's new opening batsmen Nick. He has been following the series in India with much interest, fielding many questions about his nephew's background and journey and is always happy to share.

The Compton family are well-known and well-respected. Denis' triple-century in Benoni is the stuff of legend and both Patrick and his brother, Nick's father Richard, are much admired for their roles in non-racial cricket in Natal. Nick, though born in Durban, had his destiny mapped out for him in England early on when he was offered a cricket scholarship to Harrow school in London at the age of 15.

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A sporty paradise

There is one thing South Africans and Australians have in common. People from both countries love sport. And for the most part, both are pretty good at it

Firdose Moonda

25-Feb-2013

There is one thing South Africans and Australians have in common. People from both countries love sport. And for the most part, both are pretty good at it.

Before last year, they were the only two countries to have won two rugby World Cups each and although Australia's record in major cricket tournament far exceeds South Africa's, they have both been Test No.1s. Of course there is one major difference between them as well. While South Africa are dominant in some things, Australia actually excel at everything.

Beyond those two sports, Australia's footballing record has regularly seen them punch above their weight, they have performers who continually impress at Tennis Grand Slams - most recently Samantha Stosur - and they always return with armfuls of medals from Olympic Games. Apart from golf, South Africa cannot compete with them on those levels.

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Masterful menu for would-be Test masters

Duck was not in the menu but Derby County Cricket Ground has probably never seen such as a spread

Firdose Moonda

25-Feb-2013

Duck was not in the menu but Derby County Cricket Ground has probably never seen such as a spread. The South Africa team were treated to a gourmet meal courtesy of the country's first Masterchef winner, Deena Naidoo, who was flown to the UK specifically to cook for the team by pay-channel broadcaster M-Net.

Naidoo won the TV cookery title little over two weeks ago and is in the process of setting up a restaurant in Johannesburg as part of his prize. For a special insert on the channel, Naidoo presented a three-course meal to the squad, because "they are on the verge of becoming the No. 1 side in the world," one of the producers said.

Although the feast could have been prepared for the national rugby team, who have convened in Cape Town, or the Olympic athletes who are in London, the cricket squad was chosen by media mogul Koos Bekker, who is the chief executive of M-Net. South Africa still have one Test match to go, the Lord's fixture which starts next Thursday, which they must not lose if they hope to top the Test rankings but Masterchef were only able to get access to them in a week that did not include an international match.

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Lonely Hambantota, lovely Pallekele

Hambantota and Pallekele. Two names we had heard frequently and always together in the run up to the 2011 World Cup, as the locations for the new stadiums Sri Lanka was building

Abhishek Purohit

25-Feb-2013

Hambantota and Pallekele. Two names we had heard frequently and always together in the run up to the 2011 World Cup, as the locations for the new stadiums Sri Lanka was building. Both modern facilities, with grandstands and grass banks. One close to the southern coast; one in the mountains. Both amid forests. One difficult to access, one comfortably reachable.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium has to be one of the remotest grounds in cricket. It takes its name from the coastal town of Hambantota, but is located at least 35km north of it. That would have been still bearable but apart from the hotel where the teams stay, there hardly seem to be any decent hotels in Hambantota town. Our hotel is in Tissamaharama, a town north-east of Hambantota and close to the Yala National Park. The town is surrounded by lakes and fields. The stadium is around 60km away.

One has to take the road southwest towards Hambantota and then turn northwards for the ground. The second leg of the journey is a completely out-of-place looking four-lane stretch. You train your eyes on the horizon, and struggle to count even four vehicles using the road. A thick forest lies on both sides. Forget a stadium, you'll be lucky to spot a house or two. Just when you actually start to think that you might have taken the wrong route, the stadium rises suddenly out of the forest. We have drop-in pitches, this seems like a drop-in stadium. There is next to nothing close by. At night the ground glistens in floodlights surrounded by endless darkness.

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Time for a ladies tea

It's not often that something in cricket is done with ladies in mind

Firdose Moonda

25-Feb-2013

It's not often that something in cricket is done with ladies in mind. While the women's game and interest around it has grown, it will be many years before it is regarded the same way as the men's. For now, the participation of female representatives remains limited.

Often I am the only woman journalist on a full length tour, although I sometimes meet girlfriends along the way. At home, Jenny Bernstein of the South African Press Association is my BFF, in India ESPNcricinfo's Sharda Ugra and I chat over tea and in England I have bumped into, lunched and dined with Elizabeth Ammon and Sarah Ansell of SPIN cricket and Alison Mitchell of the BBC. But in places like New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, I've flown solo.

Don't think of that as a complaint. I've been lucky to have been accepted by my male colleagues as one of the boys and most of the time, there's no-one I'd rather be. But on the days when we go from eight hours of working on the cricket to four hours of watching rugby in the pub to endless conversations about golf swings, football leagues and boxing matches, it can get a little lonely.

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Always connected in the world of cricket

It does not matter how small the world gets, it will never get smaller than cricket. Like a large, extended family, everyone knows everyone else, because they know somebody who knows the person they are meeting, somehow

Firdose Moonda

25-Feb-2013

It's a connected little world, however vague or thin those connections are. Cricket people nurture and foster these links with great pride, which is why there's every chance that when you walk into a ground, be it in Wayamba or in Worcester, someone will know someone you know.

That's what happened at New Road. While watching the South Africa team's optional practice - where the highlight was seeing triple centurion Hashim Amla giving throw-downs to the boys who did not bat at The Oval, such as JP Duminy - a man in a blue shirt approached the South African contingent.

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The English crowd experience

Generosity. It's not what you expect from a crowd that has paid to get something. But it is what The Oval crowd was all about

Firdose Moonda

25-Feb-2013

Generosity. It's not what you expect from a crowd that has paid to get something. But it is what The Oval crowd was all about.

They gave it to South Africa's bowlers throughout the match, but particularly on the first day when Imran Tahir was their main target, they gave it to their own batsmen, mostly in support but occasionally in jest and they opened their wallets for five days straight and gave their money to Surrey County Cricket Club.

It was not small change either. The average ticket cost £75. Ask that much at the gate in South Africa - almost R1000 - and no-one would go to the cricket. You can imagine the surprise then when more than 100,000 people streamed through the gates over the course of five days to watch the home side lose, in a spectacle that took the better part of four days to play out.