Every member of the party received a garland of flowers and we were whisked through immigration and on to our hotel in Dhaka. It is always one of those special moments on tour when you meet the driver of the team bus. This time, we had Salim, who is an absolute hoot. He has in his possession a Boney M cassette with the song One Way Ticket on it. He greets us with it on every trip, and took to singing it to us.
Our preparation for this tournament consisted of two net practices and two warm-up games, against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. It would be very easy to talk only cricket, but I feel I must make mention of the country of Bangladesh, and the circumstances its people have found themselves in over these past few weeks.
Our first views were from the air and, believe me, we saw nothing but water. It was still raining and the place was awash. On our journey to the National Stadium, there were torrents of water at the side of the roads, and the outfield at the ground was like a paddy field. Incredibly, the pitches were snuff-dry, and we practised. To play our practice matches, we had a 90-minute coach journey to the National Institute of Sport. We crossed a causeway, which took us 30 minutes, and we saw nothing but water on either side. In fact, there should have been just a small river, and on meeting Gordon Greenidge, the Bangladesh national coach, at the ground, he told us that the causeway had only just reappeared after the floods. I have to mention that the causeway is about 40 feet above land level.
As for the cricket, we were into our stride immediately with a convincing win over Zimbabwe. Nick Knight and Alistair Brown got us off to a rollicking start, and although we quickly lost Graeme Hick and Neil Fairbrother, Graham Lloyd and Adam Hollioake put a telling partnership together with some typical busy batting.
Jack Russell hustled the tail along and we finished just short of 200 on a saturated outfield in our 45 overs. We fancied our chances, and the Lancashire duo of Peter Martin and Ian Austin hit their straps and reduced Zimbabwe to 20 for four. We bundled them out for 79 and I was totally satisfied with our performance.
We played Bangladesh at the same venue, but this time, in front of 10,000 spectators. I have not got a clue where they came from because the stadium, although state-of-the-art, seems to be in the middle of nowhere. They love their cricket out here and even the strikes have been suspended until the tournament is over.
Bangladesh are not in the tournament, so this was their final. We batted first, this time on a damp pitch, and had a difficult start. Mark Ealham was moved up the order and got us into gear with some robust hitting. The Lancashire duo of Lloyd and Fairbrother then put together a typical partnership.
The tail wagged and we were up to 230. Our performance with the ball and in the field was competent without being outstanding. Bangladesh closed on 193 after I had challenged our boys to defend 175. Bangladesh gave a good account of themselves in front of an excitable crowd, and I can see them emerging on the international scene in time, just as Sri Lanka did.
Nearing the end of the game, we saw the customary sight of security men surrounding the playing area, but this time with rifles. Apparently, the loudspeaker message was to the effect that anyone entering the playing arena would be shot. It came as no surprise that the players and officials left the field in relative comfort. There is probably a lesson here for all our Test-match grounds!
And so to the game against South Africa at the National Stadium. We were confident, relaxed and in good spirits. Hollioake won the toss and elected to bat. We started adequately after losing Brown early, then Ealham gave the innings impetus with some cracking stroke-play.
After the first 15 overs, we were 84 for two, but once again lost a batch of wickets for no apparent reason. Top pitch, nothing untoward in the bowling, but we somehow arrived at 90 for five.
Fairbrother drew on all his experience and Hollioake played superbly as the two combined in a top-class partnership. Everybody chipped in and a real team effort got us to 281.
We knew South Africa would come at us with guns blazing. We have to say that at no time did we look like stopping the run flow. Their big guns, Daryll Cullinan, Hansie Cronje and Jonty Rhodes, led the charge and we did not do nearly enough to win the game.
We looked tentative with the ball and lacked conviction and variation. It was a great disappointment for the captain, who ran himself to a standstill during his innings. He suffered from exhaustion in the 36C heat and 80 per cent humidity and had to leave the field from time to time. He must have been struggling because he is one tough customer.
This is a sudden-death competition, something new to world cricket, so our loss means we are on the way home, or in my case, off to a fresh challenge in Perth.
As always at the end of our participation in a tournament, there are areas for improvement, but there were pluses to come from our time in Bangladesh. Among them was Ealham's elevation in the batting order for the first 15 overs, which worked well. Fairbrother showed again how effective he is, Hollioake regained his form, and Ashley Giles will challenge for a spinning place.