Kuantan is not a big city, a little town buzzing with lots of life. Beach is its attraction, seeks beehive of activity. Hyatt Regency, the official hotel where the teams and officials are put up, is right at the beach side, giving full sea view. Hyatt is in the eastern corner of the town while the hockey stadium is at the far west end. Taxis don’t use meter, and it is your luck if you can make it with reasonable rate from Hyatt to Bisma Belia, sports complex where swimming and hockey facilities are there.

The other day I gathered at Hyatt the Indian team has gone for practice, I rushed to Bisma Belia from Hyatt, cutting a big hole in the pocket, but the team was not there. Only Korea and Bangladesh were practicing. What I missed out the exact reading of pitch nos. Indians were practicing on pitch II, which is a good 10-15 minutes drive from Pitch I. Pitch I is Bismal Belia where the Asia Cup competitions are held. Pitch II is quite far off from it. Why do you then call it pitch II as if it is in the same complex?

Hockey, as usual, does not seem to be popular here, at least with the public. Not many could give you the idea of even where the stadium is. The taxi driver who took us (me, a fan from London, a journo from India) from Terminus Makmur – where I stayed first day before shifting to Green Leaf – could not straightaway take us to Bisma Belia. He stopped the taxi en route, went near a street poster, kept on studying it before getting a clue of his route. Even then he went to some other sports fields before finally taking us to intended destination. Of course he did not charge us extra, stuck to what we bargained early.

You can easily excuse the taxi driver for not knowing hockey. The Chinese vendor, who gave us local sims, too is not aware Asia Cup is being held in his town. But this gentleman knows bits hockey info. “India and Pak are hockey in the past, in my school days. Now Germany, Netherlands and all have come”, he said. Is Australia here in the Asia Cup? We told a weary no.

The stadium is compact, in a good setting. With fresh turf, it looks bright. Turf is bumpy. Can seat, say, hardly two thousands. I think for this town this is a correct number. No use in having big stands and having no one to watch matches.

Gates are free, and as happens in Azlan Shah Cups organizers bring school children, give specific schools jerseys of each team. So, for every match you have a school team rooting for each team. Yes, hockey’s cheer leaders, and investment for future. They are equipped with flags, bandanas, big banners … etc etc

My first encounter at the stadium was the umpires. All ten umpires were together to go for blip test at Pitch I. There are three neutral umpires each from South Africa, New Zealand and far off Argentina. Pan American Fernando was there in Azlan Shah Cup in 2008 as well. One of the umpires is a IPL fan, and he will catch it in the next diary.

to be continued