Mumbai
Wednesday, November 14, 2001 It's just after one o'clock in the morning at Mumbai international airport. The night is balmy, the air tastes alive and people bicker and stroll as if taking their afternoon constitutional. Over at exit 2A, a crowd has gathered.

About 100 people skulk behind a low metal barrier, to be roared at occasionally by policemen with big walkie-talkies and heavy moustaches. To the left is a wall, to the right a coach and in the distance the intermittent sounds of Diwali firecrackers. But all eyes are focussed straight ahead, at the exit.

All the main Indian newspapers have sent reporters and three or four cameramen jostle for space on the top of ladders. A small gathering of officials from the Mumbai Cricket Association and various other dignitaries hover around the coach and make small talk, protected from the jostling throng.

And, at last, England arrive. After two months of hesitation, mastication, negotiation and persuasion, they took just 15 minutes to clear immigration. Hey presto, they are in India.

Nasser Hussain, head freshly cropped, waves for the cameras then defies his bouncers and moves forward to press the flesh like a happy-clappy Tony Blair. A few hands get the Essex treatment before the security men, brainwashed by panic, push him back towards the coach. But the first encounter has ended in a happy draw: the press have their picture, Hussain has his PR. As the coach pulls away, he waves; other players pull the curtains tight.

This Diwali eve has been less crazy than usual, some say because of the recession, others the war. But as the team drove the 40 minutes to the Taj Hotel, with one security van in front and two behind, maybe they drew back the curtains and looked at the crazy Diwali lights, loop-the-looping their way up the grand hotels and swinging gently, 50 lanterns in a row, in front of the humblest shop front. Cricket here is so vast. This is their chance to light up India.

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, will be reporting exclusively for Wisden.com throughout the England tour.

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