Thinking New Zealand

Some random thoughts while on the way to New Zealand - seven different airports, various hotel transfers and immigration checks, and far too many flights.

1. 2.30am. That's when one wakes up in India to watch a Test in New Zealand. Not to mention the numerous fights with other inmates of the family house that come along with it.

2. Rain. A reality that comes with New Zealand. England's wet summer is over-rated.

3. 2.30am and rain. Lethal combination. Almost always happens if one wakes up on time.

4. Hotel rooms and smoky bars/ Cigarettes and lost key cards… The homesick blues John Wright wrote about towards the end of his term as India coach. One is not homesick, just that it's impossible to think New Zealand without thinking Wright. Especially if one has read Wright's endearing memoirs, Indian Summers.

5. Soiled cricket boots. Who can forget them? Harbhajan Singh, for your information, has landed safely and hasn't paid any fine this time.

6. Radio Tarana. Auckland-based radio station that plays the most obscure of Bollywood songs. Reminiscent of Aakashvani.

7. The bowler is Holding, the stumps are flying. Unfortunately one of the more abiding images of cricket in New Zealand. A little less abiding is Colin Croft shoulder-barging umpire Fred Goodall.

8. Maniacal double-centuries. Refer to Nathan Astle and, to a lesser extent, Graham Thorpe.

9. Rectangular grounds and drop-in pitches.

10. Dibbly-dobblies. Self-explanatory.

11. Beige jerseys and fake moustaches.

12. Grassy banks and watching cricket in blankets.

13. Daylight till 9pm. On a dank first day in Christchurch, the light stayed good till 8pm.

14. Rain (again). Was there to welcome India in both Auckland and Christchurch.