Calm and relaxed, Indian team arrives in Chittagong

Sourav Ganguly is first, with daughter Sanaa. Then there is Rahul Dravid and the rest, including the Team India Wives starting with Mrs. Laxman, Mrs Sehwag, Mrs. Dravid and, of course, Mrs. Ganguly.

And while the Indians were allowed to go through without the customary checks, the home team players were clubbed with the riff-raff…us, that is.

Travelling with the Indian team can often be an ordeal. Like today, when

Ganguly & Co were treated like royalty, but the hosts had to forego all the special discounts. And the Indians came into the flight only after everyone else was seated.

It was only after the last Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif found his seat that things around the flight got relaxed. The two teams now without the security and formality shackles got into chat mode. Like Bangla pacer Tapash Baisya who chose to poke some fun at the one of few Indians with lesser credibility than himself in international cricket. `Gogon’, he called rookie India pacer Gagandeep Singh and from then on, there weren’t many barriers, language or otherwise.

Home team manager Col LM Latif too joined in the fun referring to veterans Mohammad Rafique and Khaled Mashud as his “dear sons”.

All through the short journey, it was difficult to figure out which one the better team was, if relaxedness can be taken as the indicator. As the home boys kept up the general chatter and yells and bursts of laughter Dravid immersed himself in a fat book, while wife Vijeta busied herself with a magazine. Irfan Pathan and VVS Laxman appeared to have joined the Tendulkar School, and their headphones didn’t come out of their ears once during the flight.

And then, suddenly, there was Chittagong. It has to be one of the most beautiful cricket centres, and as the plane touched down, you could almost feel the difference between the hustle-bustle of Dhaka and here. The air is cleaner, and fresher. The harbour just outside the airport makes for an excellent evening out.

And then, you realise just how close to Kolkata you are, when the first ship you spot at the harbour is called `Banglar Shourabh’.