³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The first thought was that while Australia and South Africa must fancy their chances of lifting the trophy, the Bangladesh captain, whose team cannot be expected to progress very far, was only there to stand and wait on the recognised powers of the game.

But later when I spoke to Gabby I discovered that there was no such snub. It was Ashraful, himself, who told Gabby he did not want to be asked any questions.

He gave no explanation why. I can only assume that in such a glittering company he felt he did not want to speak. That is a pity.

When you lead a team that few consider having a chance that is when you should stand up and assert who you are, not bombastically but in the witty way the Netherlands captain did.

Talking about his team, who play England in the opener on Friday, he said the Dutch would not look to defeat the hosts as they might not be invited back again to the headquarters of the game.

Of course Ashraful could not be expected to be as fluent as , who in my book gets the prize for the best story of the night.

Asked about his experiences he described how he spoke to his Delhi team-mate . He expected grand tactical thoughts from Sehwag about how to play Twenty20. Collingwood was to be very surprised. The secret of Twenty20 cricket, according to Sehwag, was very simple: "Watch ball, hit ball."

Very similar to what old Father Fritz, back in my school days in , told : "A good length ball you block, anything else you bang."

Gavaskar and Sehwag could not be more different in their approach to batting but it is comforting to know that the principles of sub-continental cricket have not changed in nearly half a century.

I suspect if you get more of this sub-continental weather and batting wickets to match then the Sehwag philosophy could become the batting norm of the World Cup.

And what a boost this will be and mark, one hopes, the launch of a glorious cricket season, all the more urgent given how non-existent the cricket summer has been so far.