It is a cold, windy evening at the Newlands ground in Cape Town where Pakistan is due to take on England, Saturday, in a crucial Pool A game under lights.
The action begins outside, where a bunch of policemen are seen playing cricket near the entrance, cheering and screaming at the fall of each wicket.
At one end of the ground, the metro rail whistles past the stadium, without detracting from the spectacular view of the 1083-meter Table Mountain that provides the ground its spectacular backdrop. Newlands competes with the Adelaide Oval for the cachet of being the most beautiful ground in the world.
Inside the stadium, an electrical technician is testing the sightscreen. As the lights are switched on, the Pakistan team runs out into the ground for a light fielding session.
For the side, this game is key to advance into the next stage of a tournament they last won in 1992. Team manager Shaharyar Khan walks around the periphery of the ground, keeping an eye on things as his team warms up for the evening session.
I join him, and we talk about the Pakistani cricket team and its reputation for being the yo-yo side of international cricket, up one moment down the next.
The best thing about this side is that the Pakistani bowlers look for wickets unlike the other bowlers who try to bowl outside off-stump and look for economical spells. These boys, Wasim (Akram), Waqar (Younis) and Shoaib (Akhtar) go for the wickets and are therefore expensive at times. I think that this team has it in him to win the Cup, the India-born Khan, who capped a 37-year career as a diplomat as Pakistan's Foreign Secretary, says.
The diplomat -- Pakistani diplomat -- in him comes to the fore when talk turns inevitably to the India-Pakistan encounter billed for March 1.
Back in 1999, when I brought the Pakistan team to India to play despite protests from the Shiv Sena, relations between the two countries improved considerably. Because that tour went smoothly, the Indian Prime Minister took that bus journey to Pakistan and things looked better than they ever had. This match between India and Pakistan could also serve as a start, and lead to a cathartic effect in relationship between the two countries.
Elsewhere, an English documentary-maker waits for a shot of the Pakistani players praying on the field. Saeed Anwar, with the spade beard that tokens his recent return to religiosity, Shahid Afridi, Rashid Latif, Younis Khan and the team doctor offer namas on the field while the rest get ready for practise.
Coach Richard Pybus places coloured markers on the ground and attempts -- with captain Waqar Younis providing simultaneous translation in Urdu for such as need it -- to explain the catching drill to the boys.
A few minutes of observation is all it takes to understand why this team is so mercurial. The mood at the start is light, very light, almost uninvolved. It almost reminds you of school, where the idea was not to take part in the drills, but to cheat the system.
Pybus screams his guts out -- but his exhortations fall on deaf ears. Yell the name of the player before you throw the ball to him, the coach says, and babel breaks out as all players scream loudly -- and not all are screaming the same name.
The coach ups the ante -- anyone who grasses a catch has to take 20 dips, Pybus says. Abdur Razzaq and Waqar Younis take enough dips to grow extra chests and give Schwarzenneger a complex.
Gradually, the momentum picks up. Under the eyes of England's Barmy Army, who have turned up to watch, the Pakistanis pick up the pace and with Rashid Latif at one end of the pitch to keep and Richard Pybus at the other end to toss the ball to the fielders, the The Kookaburra balls begin smacking into the stumps with regularity.
High catches seem to be the team's bugbear -- they drop so many that Shahryar Khan, half amused, half exasperated, is moved to comment.
Wasim Akram is the cynosure. 36 years old, a diabetic, Akram is in his fifth World Cup -- the way he throws himself into the practise, though, you would think he was a teenager all fired up at his first tournament.
Akram is already the top wicket-taker in World Cups; he needs two more to become the first bowler in the world to take 500 one day international wickets. Akram believes he will get there in the coming game.
In fact, Akram is not thinking of whether, but who -- and his dream is to get to the milestone by taking out Lancashire county-mate Andrew Flintoff. "It would be nice to get him for my 500th wicket," he says.
Inzamam Ul Haq is another veteran you almost don't recognise. A good 10 kilos lighter than the weight he carried into the last World Cup, Inzy flings himself into the practise session and, even after it is over, does ten laps of the ground before calling it quits.
Azhar Mahmood is another player who is enthusiastic about his practise session -- and philosophical about the fact that thus far, he hasn't found a place in the Pakistan playing eleven. It doesn't matter, says the man who has two Test hundreds in South Africa to his credit, if he has to sit out all the games -- provided Pakistan wins.
The buzz is that there is some rivalry between Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq, who has laid claim to the all-rounder's berth. There was a time, reminds Mahmood, between 1996 and 1999 when Razzaq was struggling with his game. My own injuries have put my comeback on hold," he muses. "I get one odd game here or there, and then get dropped for the next 5-6 games. There is no time to get some form back. But I will wait for my time. I hope it is this Saturday.
He won't want to remember what happened the last time he played a one-day game at this ground -- out for a duck, bowled Lance Klusener.
