Celebrity Watch, Cricket And Chaos: Commonwealth Games Flavour In Birmingham

The Arena in Birmingham will be the home of Gymnastics events over the next few days. The third largest indoor stadium complex is also the home of journalists from 72 Commonwealth Countries and territories. From collecting accreditations to bibs to venue access guidelines, this is a journalist's must-go destination and is by far the busiest hub in the city as the event waits to open. Elsewhere it is a lull before the storm.

Azreel from a Malaysian TV station is curious about India's Lakshya Sen because the Malaysians are formidable in badminton and he wants all the tid-bits on Sen.  But stops 10-mins into the conversation, “Hang on, isn't cricket returning after Kuala Lumpur in 1998?'

It is a multi-discipline event- the biggest Commonwealth Games with 19 sports. India is participating in 16 of 19. For the moment, the talk of the town is Women's Cricket.

With Neeraj Chopra's exit and the Women's cricket team delivering an opening day opening show, all roads are leading to Edgbaston.

Craig Cooper, Programme Director, Birmingham City Council affirms, “Cricket is a highlight of these games. We had the Test match here a few days ago and the T20, India did particularly well. Also the Pakistani community is a big part of this city.”

And that also means the big ticket event will be on 31st July, when the Indian women take on their Pakistani counterparts.

In Birmingham's proposal for women's cricket, the CWG Federation had said the sport's addition was “likely to be popular not only with spectators locally in Birmingham, but also for fans across competing nations, with 90% of the sport's one billion fans worldwide thought to reside in the Commonwealth.”

Even in the middle of severe economic crisis, 15 Lankan journalists have made