As you go up into the stands and around the Premadasa Stadium in 20 minutes, one of the first things you notice is the Bomb Disposal Unit, parked just behind the grandstand. The rival Sri Lankan factions may be talking peace on the Thai coast, but no-one here is leaving anything to chance, least of all the Special Task Force. It does strike a slightly incongruous note, though, what with the trees and shrubs outside the grandstand bedecked with lights, as if Christmas has come to Colombo three months early. Actually, for the memorabilia sellers it possibly has, what with Sri Lanka replica shirts going for 650 rupees and the ICC ones for 500 each. A smattering of Barmy Army support can be found in both the stands that flank the pavilion. The ones that have made it here are an ageing bunch, and the noise levels are nothing like what they sometimes are. If anything, the kids who come out to play during the innings break make more of a racket, thumping their bottles of water against the plastic seats and singing songs that would make Asterix the Gaul's off-key bard Cacofonix nod in appreciation. I spot one Barmy Army drum, which is a relic of the 2001 tour here (or so the inscription says), but no-one's beating it slowly today. England's huge total and Zimbabwe's poor start reduced the atmosphere to pricked-balloon proportions.

The more serious fans must be consulting the Wisden Wizard a lot, because they have their facts and figures spot on. One even tells me that taking both strike rate and runs scored into account, Marcus Trescothick is the world's most prolific one-day batsman this year.

Many of the fans are in football shirts, and the two most prominent banners I see are dedicated to a rugby league side that has seen better days - Widnes - and a football team that has sunk like a stone of late. The banner may say "Derby County - Super Rams", but Derby stopped being Fab when Fabrizio Ravanelli's white hair started going grey.

I spot a solitary fan in Zimbabwe colours, and though he cheers his boys on and has a go at Ronnie Irani every chance he gets ("Get off the park, you county bully!"), it's soon a case of silence being golden. County bully picks up four wickets, and our man stares deep into his beer for answers.

The beer service is doing good business, hardly surprising when you consider the heat and humidity, and a couple of the barmy boys are spotted sheltering behind a home-made banner that reads: "Three lions on the shirt, three cups in the cabinet." World Cup 2003, The Ashes and ICC Champions Trophy are painted into the corners. Some might call it optimism, others might call it folly - but I reckon barmy is about right.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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