Please play all five days,Im paid by the hour

July 22: Meet MCC member Kiran More who walks briskly towards the Long Room,wearing the much-in-demand yellow-orange club tie. The cheerful little man has a funny line ready. They made me a member here as I dropped Graham Gooch early in the inning where he made 333, he says.

July 23: Spotted outside the team hotel a very agitated Siddhartha Mallya. He is in mixed company but none of the faces around him remind me of Bollywood. Someone says Virat Kohli is inside too. Dont bother to check.

July 24: Strike a conversation with a regular tube traveller who wears India blues even during the Tests. A couple of days ago,he had called Dhoni God. At the end of Day Four,he is disgusted and cant comprehend why Dhoni started with Raina post-lunch when Ishant had dismissed Pietersen,Trott and Bell towards the end of the first session. Reminding him of the biblical God working in mysterious ways thought doesnt help.

July 25: Tendulkar batting at the nets with his son by his side is a great feel-good story for the local media. An 18-year-old girl from Middlesex,who bowls to Tendulkar,gets extensively quoted. But Monty Panesar at the nets with their rivals biggest name doesnt go well with the team management. There is also a modest medium pacer from India who is also seen bowling to the master. A question: Can you prepare to face Anderson,Broad and Swann by facing girls in their teens,international discards and club cricketers?

Nottingham
July 26: Have a room just opposite the team hotel. A long-lost friend drops in. Fool him by saying that I saw Dravid brushing his teeth in the morning. Was the left elbow coming out straight while he stroked the brush? he asks.

July 27: Alastair Cook recognises a couple of young faces from a group of autograph hunters. You were there at the hotel last night. What do you do with these signatures? he asks. Someone chips in,Sell on ebay, he says. Cook shakes his head but signs on the over-sized England shirts the fans are wearing. After he leaves,the kids are joined by a guy carrying a bag containing several blank England shirts.

July 28: Gambhir is out with an injury so Yuvraj is likely to play. The reporter in me dies as I get informed about this by a young fan who waits at tables after his MBA classes. He and his friends saw Tendulkar and Yuvraj go to a Thai restaurant for a quiet dinner. Yuvi sure to play, he says.

July 29: Yuvi does. Fish out a chit on which the fan/source had scribbled his number. Ring but no reply. Dead end with Mr Deep Throat.

July 30: Is it a bald eagle? Is it an ostrich? No,its Ishant Sharma after his haircut. So when did he go to the gardener,oops sorry,barber? As it turns out,his hair was snipped in his hotel room. Rumour has it that it took 48 hours.

July 31: Dhoni calls back Bell and becomes the darling of the crowd. The umpires fall in love with the Indian captain. Had he not allowed Bell to take the field again,the umpires would have had to order room service for the rest of their time in England.

August 1: The home team find a new hero in Tim Bresnan. Mind goes back to his media interaction at Lords. Disturbed by a drone from an unknown source,the burly man checks all the recorders in front of him. Finds nothing. You hearing voices in your head, says someone,and everybody laughs.

Northampton
August 2: Walk into an Indian restaurant and sit across manager Billa,who is having his supper. Reach for the menu. Drop it. It reads like a book youve read a hundred times. Balti,kadai,paneer… you know just whats next. Point Billa to the waiter and tell him to get what the big man is eating. It turns out to be makki di roti and saag,and its not for sale. Billa obliges,parts with his meal. He gets a customer for life and ample word-of-mouth publicity.

August 3: Viru is at the nets with cotton in his ears. Come to know he has a hearing problem. After the series it gets confirmed that it was labyrinthitis,which also gives him severe headaches. The big question: How did he get it? Viral fever and a sudden increase in decibel level while watching a movie in Bangalore,is what they say.

August 4: The venue for the tour game,Northampton,is a lovely and lively city. Actually,its a town. Only if they have a proper cathedral can this qualify as a city.

August 5: Find myself sitting next to Graeme Swanns brother in the press box. Looks exactly like his brother. Get the address to reach his parents. Meet the most affable couple. After the interview,father drives about 20 miles to drop me and fellow reporter back at the place we stay.

August 6: Zaheers tour is over. A dressing room tale: Someone walks in with a camera as Zaheer sits wondering when his injuries will heal. The pacer wants to be clicked. Grapevine has it that he said: I will win India this series if I get fit. The frame was to be the proof of his prophecy.

Birmingham
August 7: Land in Birmingham with no hotel reservation. A taxi driver from Pakistan calls his entire phone book to find us a place. We are flexible with location,budget and comfort; he isnt. Apne bhai hai, he says whenever he refers to me.

August 8: Wait for Saqlain Mushtaq outside the highly-protected team hotel. He has come to meet Harbhajan Singh,the spinner who these days tosses and turns only when he is struggling to sleep. Saqlains wait is futile as Bhajji sneaks out of the back door. Bowled by the doosra.

August 9: Talk to a couple of net bowlers from Pakistan. They are big Dhoni fans since the Indian skipper had a long chat with them. Apparently,VVS Laxman was busy so he couldnt,and they call him arrogant. Try to convince them that he is in fact the nicest guy.

August 10: Test starts with riots in the background. But its a packed house at Edgbaston. Next day in the newspaper there are no stories with headlines that say Resilient Birmingham or Cricket soothes citys raw nerves.

August 11: Meet a steward from south Gujarat,who happens to hail from a village close to where Munaf Patel was born. He claims that his team once hired the areas fastest bowler for a night game. Munaf took three wickets,he says. He seems shy to say hello to his one-time teammate. He wouldnt recognise me, he says.

August 12: Bored of watching cricket,buy a football and play five-a-side with kids in a park. Withdraw to the bench as a few extremely fit and skilful grown-ups enter the arena. Wonder who among the Indian cricketers,who regularly kick a ball for warm-ups,are fine footballers too. Draw this list mentally: Dhoni midfield marshal,Virat forward with nifty ball skills,Tendulkar the attacking winger,Gambhir the goal poacher and Mishra the stopper back.

August 13: On the day India lose the series with their worst defeat of the tour,I learn a new word. Aglet is what they call the bit at the end of shoelaces. Dravids caught behind,given because of the noise of the bats faint friction with the lace,brings the popular cryptic crossword solution to the cricket field.

London,again
August 14: Back to the capital and India get another injury blow. Like Zaheer at Lords,its Praveen Kumar at the Oval.

August 15: Kohli hits high balls with a tennis racquet and Wridhiman Saha catches them. Munaf Patel is busy giving throwdowns. Except for a few,everybody looks bored at the net session. When the team walks towards the bus the Indians fans arent abusive but they do get sarcastic. The players,as if in a trance,walk on.

August 16: Walk towards Big Ben and Westminster after dinner and come face to face with Londons Jantar Mantar. Its late at night but the square is full of tents with protesters tucked inside,in sleeping bags. Outside there are various banners. Abolish money,says one. Its neighbour has issues with the North Korean border and to its right are a couple of doves drawn on a piece of cardboard. Search for Lokpal banners and someone with a Gandhi cap but cant find any.

August 17: A day before the game,Dhoni talks about playing for pride and it gets impossible to keep a straight face.

August 18: RP Singh opens the attack and its impossible to hide your face.

August 19: Taunts greet Indian faces everywhere. A friend stumbles upon a chair at a cafe and an English fan says: You guys cant keep your furniture intact,can you? At the game the steward quips,Tell your team to stick around for five days since I get paid by the hour.

August 20: At Birmingham,a friend and I had found ourselves sharing a lift with Shane Warne and Liz Hurley. He played with his phone,she with his ears. At The Oval,I see Warne at an ice cream shop. He orders a mint,vanilla and caramel.

August 21: He comes to the field with his aglets knotted and almost pasted to his shoes. He isnt taking any chances and plays the knock of the tour. Fathers in the stands want their sons to play like him and mothers want them to behave like him.

August 22: The ton that was expected from Tendulkar on the first day of the series seems to be materialising on the final day. But he departs on 91. Its a perfect whitewash with not a shade of grey.