My visit to a local hairdresser is not an unqualified success. It takes us a couple of minutes to bridge the communication divide and once we do, it takes him an age to shave my head – as slow and painstaking as Brendon Kuruppu was on his way to that double-century all those years ago. Which is just as well, perhaps, given that our man has the disturbing habit of singing along – with sudden twists of the body – to the hit songs playing on the radio. In a perfect world, he's not the sort you would have wielding a razor in the vicinity of your carotid. Our particular Tamil number – Ibiza meets Chetpet meets drum-machine-gone-berserk and the three get lost together – makes me want to jump out of the chair, head half stubbly still, if only because Mr Singalong has a voice reminiscent of chalk squealing on the blackboard (and heaven knows we had enough of that in school). At 90 rupees, though, I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

During a pause in the Tamil techno, I also get to hear Sports Round-Up, the local version anyway. It's like watching a foreign-language film without subtitles and, but for the proper names and a few words that are similar to those used in the south of India, I understand nothing. The entire programme centres on the Champions Trophy and at the end, I'm mystified to hear the names of several cricket luminaries read out with a couple of words following each name.

Curiosity gets the better of me and I turn to my neighbour, a man who's having his Mighty Merv Hughes moustache trimmed. What's all this, I ask him? "It's the official player ratings," he tells you. "They read them out almost every day." It's an enlightening experience, though I ask myself if anyone knows this Carl Cooper fellow who supposedly captains West Indies.

One of the names near the top of the batting list is Matthew Hayden, the solid-as-oak Australian opener who I met yesterday. Haydos, as his team-mates call him, has come here with his fly-fishing gear, no doubt cheered by a tournament schedule that has several rest days for each team. He tells you that he's a quiet, private person who appreciates time alone with his family, his fishing and a surfboard. The great thing about Australia, he says, is that people aren't over-eager to embrace you. "They appreciate your space and God knows, we have enough of it."

He breaks into a big smile when told that Wasim Akram rates him among the five best batsmen he's bowled to and says, "Funny, that. If I was to make a list of the best bowlers I've faced, Wasim would be right up there. I came up against him first when I was 19 and he's as good now as he was then. I guess you know you've done something right when you earn the respect of one of the all-time greats."

Another all-time great, Jonty Rhodes, has given immeasurably to the game over the past decade, but he doesn't see his involvement extending into coaching. "What kind of a coach would I make?" he asks you with a wicked twinkle in his eye. "My cover-drive goes through midwicket!"

What about fielding, though? "You must be joking! I have coaches coming up to me and saying, `Jonty, could you please tell the kids you're supposed to throw the ball at the stumps and not dive into them?' I suppose I'll never live that run-out down [the Rhodes Airborne Division's dismissal of Inzamam-ul-Haq at the World Cup in 1992]."

Neither will we, Jonty, neither will we. As a matter of fact, I'm off to the Nondescripts ground right now to watch South Africa take on West Indies in a warm-up game. Who knows … I might yet see a close encounter of the Rhodes kind.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Champions Trophy.

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