The grand tour

India and England kick off the one-day international series tonight, and while the series will begin at a major metropolitan center, my own Delhi, it then proceeds to Faridabad (a small industrial area just outside Delhi), Goa (the Barmy Army will likely suffer several arrests here; two possible charges are public intoxication and possessing contraband), Cochin (its not just an elegant computer font, its a lovely beachside city in Kerala), and then on to Guwahati and Jamshedpur in the North-East (watch for the Dhoni cheering-squads in the latter town), before rolling on to the center, in Indore. Crowds at these venues get small slices of international cricket in a year, and tamasha cricket in its most naked version is what they'll come to watch and loudly cheer on. This, in many ways, is the main event for a large population nationwide, and all the angst over the drawn test series will soon be forgotten if India start to do well in these games. England should, hopefully, just sit back and enjoy the experience of playing seven games of cricket in packed houses, while playing the best cricket they can. It should make for a cracking series.