The answer comes as a surprise. “He had an early shift. He’s gone to the beach, you too go, great for tourists at this hour,” he says as the controversial cricketer gets confused for an ordinary man who spends his after-work hours next to the sea. One wonders if Marlon Samuels’ Nagpur phone bills have been posted to the Caribbean yet, or the assumption about the local disinterest for current cricketers is nothing but a premature generalisation based on insufficient data.

But a bit more of gawking and a sample survey of the newspapers show that the USP of this World Cup isn’t about the famous West Indian brand of cricket, but all about the beaches, nightlife, fine dining, music festivals, rain forests and active volcano. When they do actually talk about cricket, it turns out to be the atmosphere beyond boundary — the Trini posse band, metal drums and those iconic fans like the cross dressing Gravy and Disco Chickie who bring the roof down at tastefully done stands.

Ask about the invisible cricketer on the World Cup bandwagon and a former West Indian star and local organiser now says, “The World Cup has come to us a quarter of a century late, I think. In case it was the 70s or 80s we would have cricketers all over the place and we would have talked cricket till you turn deaf. But for Brian Lara there isn’t much to talk about in West Indian cricket for some time now.”

The promotional brochures justify that, as there is less about cricketers and more about girls in beachwear on hammocks delicately tied to coconut trees, picture postcard frames of black kids playing beach cricket with a background of super-cyan sea merging into the touched-up magenta skyline and happy families sipping weird coloured drinks from giant glasses with funny little umbrellas dipped in them.

It’s these sights plus the recent disintegration of the global cricket hierarchy post the recent Aussie slump has seen a sudden exodus spurt of optimistic fans from around the world towards the West Indies.

Safs says they are World No 1, defending champs Aussies dismiss that as fuzzy mathematics, Kiwis are flaunting the kangaroo skin they just hunted while the Barmy Army can ask both the Trans Tasman neighbours to shut up.

As for India and Pakistan, their fans don’t go by ranking charts or even form books to follow their team. Besides, the Men in Blue almost did it three years back.

Hope floats everywhere as even the tournament’s most troubled team seemed confident at their net session. Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said, “We have been in worse positions before and have come back. For us unity is important. In case we achieve that, nothing can stop us. As for the setbacks, it’s the baggage we have left at home,” he said.

Baggages didn’t seem a problem for anyone as managing director and CEO of this World Cup Chris Dehring said he achieved the impossible on the day team’s started the dress rehearsal with warm games. “We are already showing that we can deliver to world-class standards. All 16 teams arrived safely in the Caribbean and collectively received all of their 1,400 bags without incident,” he said.

But still it was the ‘Destination West Indies’ sales pitch that was seen everywhere. Port of Spain’s Most Valuable Person Brian said he too welcomed the world in his backyard. “I want to say that the reason that you are here for World Cup is not just to enjoy this special occasion but also to take the good news back about our countries and to ensure that your friends and families and even yourselves come back for a visit some time in the future,” he said.

The ‘Come for cricket, stay for party’ motto of this world cup hopes to push the game back in focus in the land where basketball and football rule. At the University ground where South Africa and Ireland played, it was quite symbolic to see the basketball hopes dumped into a corner of the gymnasium that has been turned into an ICC media centre. It’s the West Indian way of first luring one to the sea and sand and then bringing out the stumps for a game of beach cricket.

Vs Netherlands today

The first phase of the warm-ups have started, and India play on Tuesday, versus the Netherlands at Montego Bay, with a lot of issues to be sorted out before diving into the main phase of the tournament. At nets today coach Greg Chappell had a close-up view of the hits and misses. Sachin Tendulkar was the cynosure, as was MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, practising their hits.

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