Peace and quiet at the Bullring

Call it the proverbial lull before the storm, but there's absolutely nothing happening at the Wanderers just two days before the start of the first ICC World Twenty20. That isn't entirely true, of course, for there are a lot of last-minute touch-ups in progress, but at first glance what catches the eye is just how quiet the place is. "It's a Sunday, a holiday, so no tickets are being sold today," says a guard at the gate. So what if that Sunday happens to be only 48 hours before kick-off.

The ground is in faultless condition, though. The outfield looks beautiful, and a walk around the field proves it is even better than it looks. That only means, of course, that India's glaring inadequacies will be exposed even further. Unless the infusion of new blood and the exclusion of some less agile fielders translates into a perceptible difference on the field. Or is that perhaps hoping for too much?

Meanwhile, apart from the exquisite outfield, what stands out is the colour in the stadium: the spaces between the stands have been done up with the Twenty20 logo, which, while looking awfully cluttered, serves the purpose of conveying excitement and frenzy.

Clearly, the Twenty20 fever isn't visible all over the city - the cab driver who drove us from the airport mistook the mention of the ICC World Twenty20 for the 2010 soccer World Cup. Never mind the cab driver, come Tuesday, and the Wanderers should be packed, with beer, music and everything else that this format attracts. The ignorance of the cab driver, and a few more like him, won't seem like much then.