In far off Pallekele, the night Pakistan crushed Zimbabwe in their World Cup Group A game, two former captains met and had a long on-field post match chat. It even held up the team bus for more than a few minutes. As the coach, you can get away with such minor delays.
As Waqar Younis, now the Pakistan coach and captain of the 2003 World Cup team and Rameez Raja, one-time Test leader, chatted you can be sure it wasn't about Ray Price's bowling or even the pending retirement announcement of fast bowling maverick Shoaib Akhtar. They were surrounded by four security officers, so you can bet they were chatting in a dialect they understood and the security boys didn't.
From the occasional laugh, there was some humour in it as well. More to the point though, it appears the chat was about Pakistan’s Saturday game against Australia at the Khettarama venue of Premadasa Stadium. It was, says an insider, what bowling attack to use.
Fast-forward five days, we have Australian coach Tim Nielsen, involved in his own discussions and doing a check of the distance from the wicket to the boundaries on either side of the pitch as the one selected for the game is not that Ricky Ponting's side played Sri Lanka on that soggy night so long ago it seemed to be in another year.
Understandable, as the middle surface is being rested for the quarter and semi-finals, it is why the pitch for this game is two surfaces closer to the scoreboard.
Nielsen's chat was with a groundstaff member had been whether the current boundary on the scoreboard side of the ground would be moved closer to the scoreboard fence. The shorter scoreboard boundary may not seem a big deal to spectators, but when playing a key World Cup game, it can affect the length the bowlers need use as well and field placings. Such are how bowling and fielding strategies synergised.
It is why, when Shahid Afridi, when questioned about the Pakistan bowling attack and whether three spinners would be used he gave a broad grin and stroked his trimmed beard.
"Well, as you have Abdur, Ahmad and myself, how many more spinners do you need?" he joked. "It will be a different pitch, we know that. It is why we are not thinking of playing more than three spinners in this game."
Quite understandable as the way the World Cup is turning out, Pakistan are under more pressure for this match; a razor knife-edge of introspection that is where Pakistan can either play a classic game and win, or forget the basics and lose horrendously: as they did against New Zealand. It is more than the mind game; it is about skills and application, not make believe.
As Ponting pointed out, Australia have won all their games and are not under pressure. He also felt how the World Cup was now taking shape for his side. He agreed how his side, as World Cup holders, were proud of their CWC record, but every game as this one is a challenge.
"We are really exited to be playing Pakistan at this stage (of the tournament)," he commented. "During the breaks (in India), we have been training hard. I think we will get a better feeling where we are going after tomorrow's game."
