Cricket, above all else (31st October 1999, Ahmedabad)

I woke up, well almost woke up at a little past seven o' clock, felt my forehead and decided to get a little more sleep. I closed my eyes, snuggled deeper into my blanket and before I realised it, it was past 9 am1. Duane was ready to leave and raring to go. I was clearly not up to leaving at that point with my fever and decided to get more rest. Having arranged transport for Duane I flicked on the television and laid down again.

After an hour more of watching the game on the small screen I decided that it was time to head for the ground. So I made my way to the ground and found that the press box was not exactly excited at the state of the day's play. Not much was happening on the field.

From that point onwards things eased up and the game drifted slowly on. After lunch a good many journalists were catching up on some lost sleep!

At the end of the day's play we went down to the ground, had a chat to some of the players and wound up operations.

We met up with a group of other journalists and decided to look for a good restaurant and find some dinner. After three auto rickshaw rides we found that Ahmedabad had gone to sleep. We returned to a restaurant right next to our hotel and settled for what was available.

Back at our hotel room we discovered a CD with Anil Kumble's World Cup '99 simulation cricket game. The old lap top was pressed into action and Duane's New Zealand took on Anand's Pakistan. After posting a competitive 299 Pakistan lost the plot with their bowlers and a brilliant Nathan Astle century saw the Kiwis through to victory with four overs to spare.

It's amazing how a game can take over your life so completely. We spend our whole day thinking about, talking about and writing about cricket and yet there's still enough zest at the end of the day to play make believe cricket computer games!