An outdoor view

As one approaches the Iqbal Stadium, large pockets of fans, mainly youth, stand around chit-chatting. Most of them don't have tickets but continue to lurk around, almost throughout the day, just observing the events around, listening to the crowd inside and trying to guess what may be going on inside.

As spectators, media-men and security personnel come out of the ground, they ask them about the state of the game, trying to pry out details, imagining what might have happened.

Instead of watching it on television, they prefer to hover around, hoping that a ticket or pass will materialise from somewhere and soaking in as much atmosphere as they can. It's a strange sort of way to spend a day, knowing that Shahid Afridi is going ballistic, getting news that Shoaib Akhtar is running red-hot, yet not able to watch the action.

Maybe a giant screen outside might help, but again, maybe that will remove a part of the charm as well.