The Good Luck Charm of Yellow

And the Traders of Mumbai

    Suneel ambled gently to his yellow and black cab, a lifetime of appeasement to the Chennai weather. No need to rush things. No good comes of that. He laid a strip of yellow tinsel on the dashboard before starting the engine, and a delicate bouquet of Jasmin buds. Ganesh was on the dashboard too, of course.

    The horn made the same noise as every other car, but he was serene. The soothing honking a herd of penguins make. Suneel (he was clear it was not ‘Sunil’) explained his t-boning by a truck two years earlier which hospitalised him for six weeks. He adjusted his back-brace three times, with an apologetic smile.

    The Hotel Grandview Residency is situated on a street unable to accommodate cars in both directions. It is unassuming from the outside and boasts no facilities other than rooms which are basic but exceptionally clean. The bed is outstanding, the wifi brilliant and there is a room-service menu operated by the bell-boy who pops over to the next-door restaurant to collect your order. It feels like a five-star upgrade compared to Mumbai.

    Travel days in India are inevitably frowned upon by players because they take a long time and involve ‘hanging around.’ It’s almost 30 years since the first of my 13 tours to this country and my wish for a fly-on-the-wall view of international cricketers travelling the way we do, remains as strong as ever. Purely for entertainment rather than vindictive value. How they might frown without their VIP treatment, as laborious as they might think it to be.

    One of my four trips through the x-ray scanner at Mumbai Airport was my fault – I didn’t realise there was a ‘females only’ queue. The others were for discretions such as not placing the laptop charger in the tray alongside the laptop, and the spare batteries, and the USB microphone. And the emergency deodorant.

    Two hours walking the streets of Chennai blew the travel cobwebs away and made light of the four hours sleep last night. The traders, the cushion-stuffers, the crab chefs and the timid, stray dogs. The memories returned quickly.

    And back to the Grandview, which is actually of the building five metres across the street although the beach is just a kilometre away. I will visit there first thing tomorrow morning and report back. I never did get to the beach on previous visits to the former Madras.

    Australia’s demolition of the Netherlands this evening has confirmed the perception that India, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia will complete the semi-final line-up, even though we’re just over halfway through the group matches. Even with a lucid imagination, it’s hard to see beyond those four teams.

Back to the room for an early night after a quick view of the always impressive MA Chidambaram Stadium.  

    Suneel’s yellow tinsel was a ‘charm’. It was just tinsel, of course, but if it reminded him of life’s priorities and to stay calm, then it was worth far more than the 100 Rupees it cost him to purchase. I may be on the lookout for some upon my return to Cape Town.