After Play

Opening Stand
When Holland came to bat against India in Paarl's Boland park, there was a subcontinental girl, almost beautiful, clapping excitedly in front of the press box. To her right were LG distributors on a free trip, who would have been deported for their general behaviour if South Africa were not a polite society. The distributors were furious that the girl should be cheering Holland. The incongruity was cleared when she said: "My boyfriend is one of the openers." She is a TV journalist who met Daan Van Bunge during the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. "We connected," she says. Their lines of work met conveniently in SA where he told her what he wanted most was "exposure". After the LG distributors learnt that her man was batting, most of them started cheering for Holland. She was wearing a slit skirt.

Last Man Standing
Local security always tails the Indian team diligently though they don't, now that the ransom amount for the Indian is greatly dependent on the last match result. Two days before India's match against Holland, one security officer Uys was greatly troubled. The entire team had finished the nets session and left for their hotel, except for one man. "Sachin is all psyched for the World Cup," Uys said. "He has gone inside to practice with the bowling machine. That's why he is so good." Even Vinod Kambli, who was waiting for him at the car park, left before Sachin finally decided he had had enough practice. Kambli plays for a local team in Paarl and apparently had given some tips to Indian players, making Sachin yell out to him one morning before the match: "Groundsman, groundsman!"