If you think Indian pitches spin a yawn, you haven’t been to Kochi

But lo and behold, the Kochi game provided more than 575 runs, a superb day of one-daycricket and kudos from all around. The icing on the cake was the excellent crowd behaviour.

So in the midst of uncertainty, nightmarish memories and bad blood about abandoned matches and changing venues, Kochi emerged as a new cricket venue. The books will merely show that Kochi became the 30th city and the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium the 34th ground in India to host an International Limited Overs match. But what the match referee, Peter Van Der Merwe, and the captains Steve Waugh of Australia and Mohammed Azharuddin of India had to say at the end of the game was most encouraging. "They have done a wonderful job. The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) deserves a prize," said Der Merwe. Waugh and Azhar nodded in affirmation.

When Kochi was actually handed the match some weeks back, the stadium was hardly equipped for an international. The KCA had realised it as far back as late 1996, when they hosted the game between Karnataka, the then Ranji champions, and the touring South Africans. The wicket was nothing towrite home about and helped the bowlers to no end.

Then two Ranji Trophy matches were held last year here in trying conditions with the outfield almost as thick as a forest and two innings getting over for totals well under 100.

Hardly encouraging when an association had ambitions of hosting an international game. The problem escalated as the ground was not in KCA’s custody and was mainly used for FC Kochin’s home matches in the National Football League match this season. This was a major hurdle in the preparations as the NFL league matches were on till February.

But the KCA seemed to have performed a miracle. The main curator was Ramachandran of Tripunithura Cricket Club, and he was helped by well-known curator Parthasarathy of Chennai. Ramachandran acknowledged expert in preparing wickets. The soil was brought from Vaikkom, in central Kerala. "It was black clay. Though I have made wickets for Ranji Trophy the know-how of Parthasarathy made all the difference," he said.

Kerala like Calcutta not onlyloves, but also knows its sport. It is not uncommon to see packed stadia with ticketing for athletics, football, volleyball, basketball and swimming. But Calcutta badly let its own image down one tense night when India played Sri Lanka in the World Cup. Kerala, however, passed the muster with flying colours on its debut night. And, its appreciation of the sport and performances was rewarded with not only a deserving pat on the back, but also a remarkable win by the Indians.