Bangalore - Melbourne's sister city?

Imagine crossing hemispheres, gaining five-and-a-half hours and landing in a city with exactly the same weather as the one you've taken off from. It produces a strange sort of jet-lag. You've moved but it feels you really haven't. Melbourne's sister cities include Osaka, Tianjin, Milan, Boston and St Petersburg but somebody needs to add Bangalore to that list.

It's winter in one city and (supposedly) summer in the other. It was raining when I boarded and raining when I landed: that same windy, chilly, pitter-patter. Occasionally the sun would come out and suddenly you sweated under the jacket. Hardly had you tucked it into your bag than the wind started to sting. A home away from home. And that's where the similarity ends.

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Lesson No. 1 at the MCG: Cricket Australia has banned Mexican waves (this was earlier this year). It's nothing personal against the central American country. Instead it has been prompted by the mugs and detritus that get thrown up every time a wave happens. One of those objects was apparently a hard tray that smashed into a kid's head. And that was that.

Lesson No. 2: Big Merv Hughes is standing near a statue of Dennis Lillee and posing for photographs. It's not about his moustache but a Cricket Australia promotion for alcohol control. "We all enjoy our beer," said a big poster, "just not one an over."

Big Merv is also a selector, incidentally. He was standing at the nets today and watching Shaun Tait steaming in and smashing them into Ricky Ponting's bat. Nice choice of batsman to bowl to. They were short, full and some ripped off a good length. He was possessed, as if there was no tomorrow. Thank god there is. It's Christmas, Shaun.

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Slip of the day: Rahul Dravid, speaking to the media, congratulating Sourav Ganguly on his hundred Tests: "A hundred years is a fine achievement by any standards." Oh yes, it is.

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Chatting with a good friend here, we discuss club cricket in Australia. "Can you believe I gave up bowling after I came here?" he said. Of course I couldn't. He was a decent bowler and why should anyone give up bowling of all things. Smoking maybe, but bowling? "I bowled a wide at nets once and was expected to do ten push-ups." What if you didn't? "It's just a done thing," he said, "nobody tells you to do it but everyone knows it has to be done. If I didn't my name wouldn't be on the team list from next time."