Dhyan Chand Stadium hosted the World Cup six months ago. Now, another major tournament is taking place on the same turf. The main change one notices at the outset is less security. Surprised!. This is true. Once you enter the stadium, there is no another ring of security to waste your time. Certainly not one at the media entrance. During the World Cup we had three tier-security.

On India-Australia match, there was huge crowd in front of ticket-entry gates. I interacted with them. Almost 90 percent of people I spoke to felt India stands no chance against Australia. Still, so much crowd.

On Friday today when I woke up to newspapers they rued about the empty stands. I was surprised. Because hockey stadium was full, about 15,000 people were there. Then how could they other fans face problem in ticketing etc? I don’t know what is true?. Happy to see nothing stopped hockey fans to crowd.

When Pakistan played against Malaysia, the crowd, about 4000-5000 was vocally behind Pakistan. It was comfort and continuity for me as I saw in the opening ceremony the Pakistan contingent getting the biggest applaud next only to India.

There is one journalist in Press Box who opens a tri colour and spread it before the desk, displays whole time of the match. I purchased this during the World Cup, says he beamingly.

The other day in the press conference Ric Charlesworth was narrating his woes in sequence. The main grouse of him is uneven surface of turf. No other coaches here come out with this observation of him. And then he says the scheduling is bad. Indian teams go abroad and play in sub-zero temperatures, they don’t crib. Ric says it is too hot to play in the midday. It is really surprising, this gentleman has so many grouses. Even if the team wins, he has something. Then he says his wireliness is not working. He is Mr. Dissatisfied all the time.

After mandatory press conference after India-Malaysia match, Indian coach Jose Brasa was moving here and there. Where do you want to go? I asked. He said gate no.2. That is the media entry. He was going outside gate to meet not rights holding television channels. His worry then was he should again be allowed to return through the same gate. Security people helped him in this.