The statue outside India's team hotel in Bristol © Cricinfo Ltd

So ancient and gothic are certain parts of Bristol that you're transported to another age. Whether it's the Bristol University or the Cathedral Church, formed as early as 1150, in the College Green area the historic touch is ever-present.

Just outside the Marriott Royal, the hotel where the team is staying, is a life-size statue of Raja Ram Mohun Roy (or Rajah Rammohun Roy to the British). Roy, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the first Indian socio-religious reform movements, died in Stapleton, a village at the north east of Bristol. The plaque at the bottom of the statue describes him thus: "Philosopher, reformer, patriot, scholar. A founding father of Indian renaissance."

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WG Grace and Wally Hammond will no doubt go down as two of Gloucestershire's biggest legends but Jack Russell mustn't be forgotten. Not so much for his cricketing skills, of which he had plenty, but for his quirkiness. It's said he would survive entire tours on a diet of baked beans. He also insisted on eating Weetabix only when soaked in the milk for precisely 12 minutes.

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Incidentally this is the first city where we're coming across so many lady taxi drivers.

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When Sourav Ganguly decides to speak to the media, there's obviously a frenzy to get a byte here, a nibble there. One British television reporter, though, had other ideas. When the Indian media contingent were hovering over Ganguly, harrying him for a couple of minutes each, the journalist from BBC One stood a few feet away, told his camera-person to get the media-interest in the background and began: "Here's how popular Sourav Ganguly is in India." Works just fine.