The South Africans, led by Graeme Smith, are here to play two Test matches and five One-Day Internationals. The rival teams addressed a press conference at the Taj Samudra Hotel where the sponsors Janashakti and the trophy for the series were revealed to the press. I remember Smith as a new, dashing left-handed opener during the 2002 Champions Trophy here. He has come a long way since then.

Destiny plays a big role in shaping people’s careers — and lives.

During the 2003 World Cup at home, Smith was lucky to get a late recall after injury to one of the teammates. However, the World Cup debacle resulted in Pollock relinquishing the captaincy and a young Smith was installed as skipper to lead the Proteas’ revival. The rebuilding process is continuing but quite honestly the South Africans have never really played to their potential, especially in the one-day tournaments. The epithet “chokers” has stayed with them ever since the heartbreaking loss to Australia in the 1999 World Cup semifinal. But coming back to the present, Smith told journalists that his team would work hard not only to regain the second place in the World Test Championship table which they have conceded to England but also to take the top spot. “We are working on a couple of things to take us to the No. 1 position.

A good tour in Sri Lanka will give us a lot of confidence.

This is a real tough place to come and play.

We certainly look forward to the challenge,” Smith said.

About Muralitharan, Smith said: I know he is a world class performer and he is going to perform wellin conditions which are going to suit him.

I think he is going to be handful even without bowling the ‘doosra’.” Lanka captain Atapattu said his team would not find it difficult to switch over from one-day cricket during the Asia Cup to the Test series against South African soon after.

“We are aware of the situation and the players have the ability to adapt to Test cricket conditions immediately after the Asia Cup,” Atapattu said.

Rest Day

The Pakistani players were understandably dejected after their elimination from the Asia Cup even before they had played their last match against Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka raised their hopes by coming very close to a win over India.

But it was not to be.

With Wednesday being a rest day, the teams generally took it easy doing some swimming pool sessions, resting, relaxing and going out with friends.

The Lankans had a dip in the hotel pool in the morning and the Indians came in the evening. This is a comparatively new phenomenon introduced a few years ago with the advent of the physical trainer.

While in the pool, the players do stretching exercises to strengthen the muscle.

It is a great way to keep them fighting fit in addition to the workouts in the gym.

Dravid and Patel were the first to arrive at the pool.

Tendulkar and Zaheer were the last to leave. Coincidentally, when Tendulkar began his international career in 1989, I moved over to Arab News from Mid-Day in Bombay.

I did not expect Tendulkar to know who I was. When I gave Tendulkar my business card at the poolside, he said he was familiar with my name.

A request for an interview was politely declined. “I don’t talk in the middle of a tournament,” Tendulkar told me.

What about after the tournament, I persisted.

“Yes, may be,” he replied.

Irfan Not so Menacing Off the Field

India’s rising star fast bowler Irfan Pathan who may appear tough and menacing to the rival batsmen, is a nice young man and well-behaved off the field.

I went along friend Syed Qaiser Ali of Indo-Asian News Service who was going to interview him at his hotel room.

Irfan said he had given time only to Qaiser, so why were two of us.

I had my video camera with me so I said I was just going to shoot a video if he did not mind. So here I was recording everything, including the audio of the conversation, on my Panasonic and the readers should look forward to an interesting interview on my return.

Meanwhile, as Irfan comes from a religious background, it was not surprising to find a copy of Sura Yasin in his room.

But it was written in the Gujarati script.

“Oh, my father gave it to me when I was leaving. By mistake he must have kept the Gujarati copy,” said Irfan whose father is a religious scholar back in Baroda.