All roads lead to the Eden Park in Auckland on Wednesday, where the Aussie and Kiwi teams practiced ahead of their much-awaited match on Saturday.

Shane Watson is talking about fruit flies. New Zealand’s coach Mike Hesson labels David Warner a “decent” player and calls the most-awaited clash against Australia as “another group league game”. Around them, the city of Auckland seems to be in a chaotic whirl.

Even as a few hundred people turn up near the city centre early evening for the launch of Fan Zone by New Zealand cricketers, the local radio catches the frenetic pace of the city. Queer activists have vandalised a “gay ATM” at a posh neighbourhood, fruit flies force the popular Pasifika festival to be shifted out of city, and the Reserve Bank governor hits out against ‘not-in-my-backyard’ syndrome of inner-city dwellers, urging them to agree to high-buildings to ease the housing problem.

ANZ bank had installed a few lurid looking GAYTM’s to promote “diversity and understanding” and some queer activists painted it pink, objecting to the commercialisation, and the “representation of queer identity in terms of consumptive and wealthy citizens”. All this in a day’s work at Auckland.

Amid all this frenetic churning in the city, Saturday’s game is catching a lot of attention. Undoubtedly, more than any other city in this country, the clichéd buzz can be felt in Auckland.

The newspapers are producing double spreads about cricket, the radio cackles with titbits from the training and bytes from former cricketers, the telly is showing some action from the 1992 World Cup where Martin Crowe’s New Zealand beat Alan Border’s Australia and the bus stops, and train stations, have notices about special services to be run on Saturday, the match day.

A few girls from a school cricket team land up to watch the Aussies and Kiwis train at the outer Oval of the Eden Park, which remains a no-go zone. Phone cameras, autograph books (how quaint, thought that was extinct) and cricket bats in hand, they wait patiently for the players to finish training.

A wheelchair bound man — Originally Scottish and who has moved down from England — quietly watches the training. “I wasn’t going to miss this chance to see them so close.” A member of the Aussie support staff plies him with water and sandwiches. A lady sits under a tree with a big Blackcaps poster, wondering whether she can get the Aussies to sign on the back of it.

Busy day

Brad Haddin is at the centre pitch at this outer oval, flexing his muscles and a couple of ladies with babies wrapped around their shoulders bob and weave as cricket balls land dangerously close to them. Just across the road, visible from the training area, an Indian restaurant named Mangal is doing brisk business as Aussie journalists duck in and out for takeaways.

Harmandeep, the owner, is all alone today; his two Indian staff have sprung a surprise holiday on him and he is doing the cooking, serving and washing on his own. Surprisingly, the butter chicken and vindaloo tastes yummy.

It’s not known whether Warner sampled its fare but he has been dishing out hot stuff recently. On Tuesday, he had said that Brendon McCullum is prone to brain-explosion and the New Zealand journalists obviously probed both Hesson and Watson about it on Wednesday but without much luck.

Hesson is a short man with a boyish face. He looks more like a grammar teacher at school; he is the cricket coach of New Zealand. He doesn’t fall into traps for quotes laid by the journos on sledging and whether Australia are the underdogs. All he would say was, “Warner is obviously a decent player and they have plenty of other guys who are good players as well. We’ve done some work behind the scenes to prepare ourselves as best we can.”

Keeping the hype at bay

You can sense, though, that Hesson is quietly confident ahead of the big game. It must be strange to coach a New Zealand team, traditionally the underdogs, but now ranked as favourites. “We haven’t concerned ourselves with all the hype. Yes some boys can read! We are just focussed on what we do.”

Both teams seem a touch coy about being called favourites or even underdogs. Watson is asked twice about who is the underdog and he is even asked why he is avoiding the question. “Have I now? Look, honestly I don’t know. Both teams are in good form and it should be a good game.” The coyness from New Zealand isn’t surprising, given they must still be getting used to be being favourites, but caginess in Australia does stand out a bit. Maybe its just Watson, who is in dire need to get some runs, and is aware of it. But since its Watson, it’s couched in an attempt at confidence.

“Oh I have been knocking well in the nets, and it’s seems just a matter of time.” These top-level cricketers try their best to not let self-doubts creep in.

One senses that things are going to heat up even more in the next couple of days. You have heard that cliché right about how players can’t just wait for the big day to come? One gets that feeling in Auckland now.

There is a strange kind of edginess about the teams, and even among the fans. This World Cup needs a good tense game between full-member teams. The Associates have turned up but these Test-playing nations have been pretty anaesthetic thus far. Can Saturday come quickly please?