Bowling tips from the versatile Sachin Tendulkar during the team's practice session © AFP

Imagine a cabbie in Melbourne not knowing how to get to the MCG, or his counterpart in New York staring at you blankly when you ask to go to Yankee Stadium. You can't. But in Kuala Lumpur, where cricket really isn't part of the nation's sporting psyche, blank looks are usually what you get when you get in and ask to be taken to the Kinrara Oval. Located in the suburb of Puchong, it's more than a half-hour drive from the city's commercial hub, and exact directions and a gaze or two at the road map are necessary before you can head off in the right direction.

Along the way, you pass the National Stadium at Bukit Jalil, a magnificent
structure that seats 100,000 which hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1998.
And nearer the airport is another sporting venue that Malaysians are
immensely proud of - the Formula-One circuit at Sepang. As my cabbie tells me
earnestly, cricket doesn't really register here. The main newspapers have
opted for agency coverage of these matches, and the lack of interest was
evident as West Indies and Australia played out the opening game in front
of empty plastic seats and upholstered chairs.

"Soccer is the most popular game," he tells me seriously, before adding
that despite the government's best efforts, the national team languishes
outside the top 100 in the FIFA rankings. When it comes to national
sporting icons, you have to look towards badminton - remember the famous
Sidek brothers? - and squash, where Nicole David now heads the women's
rankings. They also have a handy hockey team, once coached by Australian
legend Terry Walsh.

Legends from a different sport await me as I arrive at the Oval. Sachin
Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are first into the nets when India arrive for a
practice session, and they're soon followed by legends-in-the-making like
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag. RP Singh has a fine stint early
on to do his chances of inclusion in the XI no harm at all, and Sreesanth
also bowls some nippy stuff to Dhoni as the players knuckle down.

In an adjacent net, Suresh Raina bats with a stump on a concrete pitch, as
Ian Frazer throws a plastic ball down at just short of a length. More
often than not, Raina is nicely in line, and able to work the ball away
off his hips or square on the onside. And later, as the sun goes down and
the lights shine bright, he's to the fore again as the team goes through
its fielding drills. After weeks of preparation - both in the form of
camps and team-bonding exercises - the team's wait is nearly over. As they
would say in the paddock at Sepang, it's time for the flag to drop, and
the bullshit to stop.