As the PCA stadium broke into an impromptu bhangra after an Indian boundary, a group of women looked at each other in disbelief. They had heard cricket was huge in India, but so huge, they had never imagined.

For the Chinese women’s cricket team, camping here for the last two weeks in preparation for the 2010 Asian Games, the India-Australia day-night match was their first taste of an Indian cricket evening.

“It’s so loud. I didn’t know 35,000 people could make noise for a billion,” Zhou Haijie, an off-spinner, said through her translator. “We are used to watching rugby, badminton or gymnastics at home, but nothing is as big as cricket is here. I kept asking our coach names of players in the match. Personally, for me, watching Harbhajan Singh bowl was a dream come true.”

The Chinese team, here on invitation as per the ICC’s new surge to promote cricket in new markets, are coached by former India player Mamatha Maben. “It was very important that they watched a live match. There is almost no cricket shown on television in China. All through the match I was telling them about the little things to be kept in mind in a match situation,” Maben said.

Chinese skipper Wang Meng, a right-handed medium-pacer, was disappointed that her favourite player — Aussie paceman Brett Lee — was missing due to injury. “I wanted to meet him and tell him that I’m his biggest fan. But I enjoyed watching Ishant Sharma bowl,” she said.

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