Mistaken identity
Before the opening game of the tournament the lobby in New Zealand’s hotel was crowded for at least two hours with a combination of interested guests, locals and hotel staff, who had been given small Kiwi flags on sticks and instructed to form a guard of honour to shepherd the players and staff from the lifts to their coach.
This provided an unusual experience for any non-cricketers who stepped out of the lifts in that period, particularly if they looked anything remotely like a New Zealand player. They were greeted by a large crowd displaying an initial rush of optimism and excitement, which was then followed swiftly by the realisation and extreme disappointment.
It was not a unique sensation – I also witnessed it on the occasions, and there were several, when people in the hotel approached me to see if I could arrange for them a personal audience with Kane Williamson. And also, later that day, when the small number of England supporters saw the game.
Unexpected (lack of) items in the baggage area
The following day, England, their entourage and assorted hangers-on, including fans, broadcasters and journalists, moved from Ahmedabad to Dharamshala, which proved a complicated process. Kangra airport, just outside Dharamshala, is too small to handle large aircraft. That meant not only did the team have to hire a plane for the players and coaches – there are no direct commercial flights between the cities – they needed a second one for their kit.
Meanwhile, a team of broadcasters boarded the same connecting flight from Delhi to Dharamshala, packed with a strange combination of members of the cricketing caravan and monks in claret robes on their way to McLeod Ganj, just outside Dharamshala and home of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan government in exile and several monasteries.
On arrival, they discovered most of their equipment was missing. It had all been loaded on to the plane, which was then far too heavy so much of it was taken off again, and a fair bit else besides. Some were luckier than others in the resulting lottery: Ian Ward got all of his luggage, including his golf clubs; Eoin Morgan nothing at all (it followed on a cargo flight the next day).
Soya milk of human kindness
There has been a lot of unusual cargo heading to Dharamshala in preparation for the World Cup. New Zealand play in the city twice, against India and Australia, and their hotel has had to make some very specific preparations – including sourcing an unexpectedly large amount of their favoured soya milk. Gurpreet Singh, whose distribution company supplies the hotel, told the Indian Express: “Lactose-free milk is usually bought once in two or three months. In the last three days we’ve given them five or six petis [about 40 litres].”
The World Cup has brought relief to the beautiful region of Himachal Pradesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where heavy monsoon rainfall caused devastating floods in July and August which have scared off tourists. Rajesh Guleri, who owns a fast food stall near the stadium, described the five fixtures that will be held there as “God’s blessing on the region”.
