At dinner with the big boys

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Sunday found the Indian team attending a dinner at High Commissioner Manjit Puri's Cape Town residence. They seemed a jaded lot after the exertions of practicing at Paarl earlier in the day. "It's very far," says Ganguly as he and the other players mingle with the local Indians and the host's family.

The Indians had earlier tried to have their nets at Newlands in the morning, but their request was not entertained. The officials of the Western Province Cricket Association, it seems, dearly wanted to host a India-South Africa one-dayer at Newlands, as this would surely have ensured better gate receipts than the upcoming match against Kenya. The rumour is that they are now taking out their anger at the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) for denying them their wish, putting the Indians through the wringer as well.

The Indians, after their first look at Paarl, were unanimous that the strip was going to be batsman-friendly. "The facilities, nets and dressing rooms are also superb," says Sundra Reddy, a liaison officer with the Indian team.

Reddy, one learns, is one of the tireless crusaders who have promoted cricket in Chatsworth (a suburb of Durban). All that hard work is to bear fruition soon; Chatworth is now hosting a three-day first-class game between the Board President's Eleven and the Indians on October 29-31, a prelude to the first Test at Bloemfontein on November 3.

As the time for dinner nears, I find myself with Yuvraj Singh, the young Indian dynamo. In between large helpings of the buffet, he says that he wants to make amends for his failure at East London in the remaining games. Talking of his dismissal at the hands of Lance Klusener in that game, Yuvraj said that particular delivery turned out to be a genuine off-spinner. "I wanted to build my innings and hence was cautious to start with," says Yuvraj, recounting that dreadful dismissal.

Virender Sehwag, the other young gun who was expected to fire, also fell to Klusener, holing out at mid-off. The stocky middle-order batsman from Delhi said he "middled" the ball well but couldn't get the expected elevation. Both Yuvraj and Sehwag, though, will have a chance to prove themselves in the remaining matches. "Our failure would not matter much if we can make up for this loss by winning the finals," Yuvraj says.

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Meanwhile, John Wright, the Indian coach, is enjoying his first trip to the Rainbow nation. We caught him in one of his nostalgic moments. "Peter Kirsten, the batting great from this part of the world, also played for Derbyshire for a couple of seasons when I was turning out for the same county," recalls Wright. "In one of the seasons, I hit nine centuries while he only managed eight."

Wright says the elder Kirsten had, on quite a few occasions in those years, asked him to come down to South Africa, and Cape Town in particular. "Now that I am here, he does not forget to remind me that I took a long time in coming," the Indian coach says with a hearty smile.

As the time for taking leave approaches, one cannot help but observe that, though Wright may be tough on the field, he is very sociable and charming off it.