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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pata" data-source="post: 458186" data-attributes="member: 2136">by Paresh Soni23 Apr 07, 12:32 AMJamaica - Airlines in the Caribbean are often ridiculed by people, even from within the region itself, and sometimes the criticism is fair.On our flight from Grenada to Barbados we watched a video presentation looking forward to the World Cup with chief executive Chris Dehring confidently saying it was going to be the best ever.Then we had a lengthy delay because the airline wasn't expecting there to be so much luggage to load - despite knowing four cricket teams and some television crew were going to be on board.Muttiah Muralitharan (rear) and Lasith MalingaIt took an hour to arrange for another aircraft to carry the excess baggage. I didn't mind so much because it gave me an opportunity to quite literally rub shoulders with some rather high-profile passengers.We had three of the four semi-finalists on board - Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka were in the front and middle of the plane - while the Ireland squad were seated at the back. It left one Irish player commenting: "As soon as we've been knocked out they stop being nice to us."It was particularly interesting to see how the Kiwis and Sri Lankans interacted ahead of their encounter on Tuesday. There were a few nods and hellos but not much more, and that was understandable with such a big game coming up.One man decided to abandon that reserve as soon as we landed in Barbados and waited to board our next flight to Jamaica. Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was like a coil released, darting here, there and everywhere, with a word for anyone who cared to listen.Upon seeing Brad Hogg, he asked mischeviously: "So I hear you Aussies are going back home. Scared of us?"The quick-witted Australia spinner replied immediately: "It's the only way you guys are going to win this tournament."Murali's almost ever-present smile disappeared, briefly, before turning into a chuckle when Hogg followed up by saying: "I'm staying on mate. I want to see how I play your doosra!"And so the quips continued. After we boarded, Murali decided to play around a bit more, while groundstaff struggled to load our luggage on again.He went up to New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori and appeared to be offering a bit of advice, which Vettori smiled at politely and quickly switched on his mp3 player. The left-armer is too canny to get caught up in any such mind games.The rest of Murali's team-mates kept a safe distance, although there was one deliciously symbolic moment when Sri Lanka opener Sanath Jayasuriya struggled to get past Shane Bond, Vettori, Jacob Oram, James Franklin and Scott Styris - just about all the bowling options New Zealand are likely to have available at Sabina Park.After all the mismatches and low attendances, we're at the critical stage of the tournament and, for almost the first time in six weeks, I can sense genuine tension and excitement at what's to come.A competition which has had its problems could be set for a rousing finish that it scarcely deserves.</blockquote>

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