Making way for the cricket

Gareth Grey and Nicholas Schilperoort are huge Twenty20 fans and there was no way they would miss the first day of the tournament. They were there well before time - and in special attire - to cheer their team, and their early reactions to the spectacle indicated that the ICC might have plenty of reason to pat themselves on the back.

Both of them agreed that this tournament had everything going for it. “It’s so colourful, it’s so much fun and the scale is much bigger than the domestic competition.” And it’s not that expensive either – Grey and Schilperoort had to shell out just R 100 per ticket, not a lot more than they would have paid for the domestic version. And they believed the pricing was justified too: the ticket gave them access to the opening ceremony too.

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The opening ceremony wasn’t much, but it was, in a way, perfect for the tournament: it was loud, it was energetic, it had the crowd throbbing to its beat, and it ended quickly. There was no information provided on the band that provided the peppy percussion – the instruments ranged from the tabla to the congo to the drum set – but it set the stage quite perfectly. The cricket, of course, outdid the drum act, which was quite perfect too.