The team hotel was virtually a fortress, dotted with armed personnel, and policemen in plain clothes mingling with the formally dressed staff, as the Indian and Australian teams reached the city on Thursday for the third ODI. While the visitors were battling injuries that have already depleted their resources — with latest victim Tim Paine’s replacement Graham Manou among the throng — several players in the Indian line-up had happy, homecoming smiles .

As many as six members of the 15-member India squad — Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli and Amit Mishra (representing Haryana after being neglected by Delhi selectors for too long) hail from the Capital. If Mumbai (now even Chennai) is the home of the Indian cricket board, Delhi seems to be the new home of the Indian cricket team, taking over the mantle once held by Mumbai and briefly by Bangalore.

Add the surrounding areas and Ghaziabad throws up Suresh Raina and Sudeep Tyagi, Gurgaon’s famous new resident is Yuvraj Singh and nearby Meerut is the home of Praveen Kumar — taking the tally to 10 out of 15.

“This new surge is adding to the stature of Delhi cricket, but I would love to see the same thing happening in Tests too,” says Bishen Singh Bedi, who was amongst the first to put the Capital on the Indian cricket map for a sustained period. “I don’t want to sound parochial, because India is bigger than Delhi or Mumbai, but one has to give credit to those boys who have have reached the top despite the system in Delhi cricket,” he adds.

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