Dancing the night away

This evening was the closing dinner for the World Cup, an event attended by the two main finalists and the two teams who contested the Plate final – New Zealand and Nepal. There were the usual speeches which we can gloss over, the main fun came after the official part of proceedings had been done and dusted.

The Indians and Pakistanis were on their best behaviour, they have a fairly important match tomorrow, and were heading for the door shortly after the tiramisu had been served. However, they did stay around long enough for a second dose of the very attractive Sri Lanka dancers who brought some lively entertainment to proceedings. There certainly seemed a few more interested faces for the dancing than pre-dinner speeches.

The New Zealand team had sat through the first part of evening looking rather glum at their team table, still trying to digest how they had managed to lose the Plate to Nepal. But they soon began to loosen up and treated the hall to a passionate rendition of the famous Haka, which is performed by the All Blacks ahead of rugby internationals. They received a generous round of applause from everyone and perhaps the cricketers should consider adopting the routine before their matches. Good on them, too, for not wallowing in defeat and enjoying their final few hours in Sri Lanka. In the morning they start a 25-hour journey home, via three countries and many more timezones.

Then, as the sound system took over and started to churn out some more recognisable tunes Nepal started to let their hair down. Soon, they were ‘giving it large’ to the R&B tracks, prompting more interest from the photographers who had decided to hang around. There was certainly no holding back as jackets came off and the dancing got more exuberant.

Their excitement was unconfined, as their win earlier in the day began to sink in. Roy Dias, the coach, wore a huge grin all evening as did Kanishka Chaugai as he tried not to break into a fit of giggles during a brief interview on stage. Their moments of fun were completely justified, they have brought some of the highlights of the tournament on the field and tonight they gave a few off it, too.