11.35am

The auction for the players has finally got underway, late by just 35 minutes. Although the journalists around are trying the hardest to find out the reason for the delay, the organisers are blasé about it. “This is not a one-day international,” said one PR person. “People have come, they sat and relaxed for a while, and it is underway now.” So be it.

We have been told there will be regular updates of which player has been bought by who for how much. We have also been told this is expected to be approximately a 12-hour affair, I just added 35 minutes to the assignment. Wish I was being paid on an hourly basis.

Meanwhile, the process to decide what teams the biggest stars of world cricket today will be playing for has started not far away from us.