Rush hours, and a rush for tickets

The main charm of the Under-19 World Cup has been its unpredictability. As Nepal, Zimbabwe and (very nearly) Ireland have shown, there's no knowing who's going to beat whom, and so there's no point in banking on the sixth sense and planning ahead as you can do in full international games. Unfortunately, this unpredictability extends beyond the playing field.

The brand-new Fatullah Stadium, the venue for Bangladesh's Group C match with Scotland, is allegedly a "35-minute" bus-trip from the Bangabandhu National Stadium. In fact, if you hit the road early and get out of town before 9am, it can take as little as 20 minutes. But dawdle in your departure, and your arrival time will be set back indefinitely.

The reason for this is a chaotic intersection in Jatrabari, which happens to be Dhaka's main gateway to and from the south of the country. During the morning rush hour it is the definitive commuters' nightmare, as busses, lorries, cars, rickshaws, paddled vans, people and all manner of road users try to muscle their way through whatever gaps in the traffic they can spot - all at the same time and from all four corners of the roundabout. A journalists' coach had left for Fatullah at 8am sharp, but we had tagged along some four hours later, fully expecting to grab the second half of the match.

Fatullah is on the southern outskirts of Dhaka, close to the bustling business town of Narayanganj, which was once proudly referred to by the British as the "Dundee of the East", for its similarity as a riverside industrial locality. It took at least another hour to get beyond the Jatrabari jungle, whereupon our bus sped across the highway and down a narrow road which results in a game of "chicken" every time a vehicle approaches from the other direction. Fatullah, we were told, was lurking somewhere along here.

Ignoring the safety aspect (and the invasive stench of raw leather from the local factories), the road would have qualified as one of the most scenic paths in Bangladesh, with trees on either side creating a sense of passing through a tunnel. In addition, the cultivable land, makeshift shacks, greenery and half-built houses gave the surroundings a village-like feel.

Then suddenly, there it was, popping up some 50 yards from the bus stop. As we hurried towards the entrance, we could tell it was a packed stadium as head after head could be spotted on the top of the terraces. Excited, we walked faster to catch the last few overs before the lunch break. The attendants at the gate, however, gave us curious looks. "You really want to go in now?" said the uniformed cadet corps lad manning an entry point to the gallery. "It's over. Bangladesh need six to win from 30 overs."

Well, that was a turn-up for the books. All that effort for a presentation ceremony, a press conference, a free lunch and some ecstatic descriptions of Bangladesh's fast bowling prodigy, Shahadat Hossain, who had evoked a lot of oohs and aahs with his blistering pace. Better still, he was a hometown lad and the fans had roared him on every time he started his long run-up. That was particularly gratifying. Not a spot had been left vacant, and almost all of the 20,000 capacity were either Fatullah residents or from Narayanganj, which put to rest any doubts about the wisdom of building a prospective international venue smack in the middle of nowhere.

The stadium has spacious dressing-rooms and lounges, and space - lots of space - is the main feature everywhere you look. A temporary media box had been placed on top of the players' lounge, and like in all other major cricket grounds of the country, it gave a full view of the oval shaped stadium. The only worry were the frail steel stairs leading up to it, which could have been lifted straight from one of the many ships that are taken apart for scrap in the nearby docks.

Refreshingly, Fatullah Stadium has its own vast exterior, and according to the Bangladesh Cricket Board, no shops will be allowed to clutter the underneaths of the stands, which is far from the case at the Bangabandhu Stadium. It is also a cricket-only venue and hopes to host a Test or ODI sooner rather than later. There is potential for increasing the capacity as well, as jutting pillars stand all around, waiting to carry the weight of the second tier of the gallery.

With a Bangladesh victory to lift the spirits, the journey back to Dhaka passed in no time. But matches were finishing early all around the country - Sri Lanka bowled out Canada for 81, Ireland were dismissed for 142 against Pakistan. Only Captain Cook and his chirpy English crew were in the mood for some batting practice against Uganda.

The following day, however, the optimism of youth spilled over all across the board. A 19-year-old Nepalese, appropriately named Shakti (meaning power) Prasad Gauchan, scaled Everest to put one over the South Africans, while over in Rajshahi, Thinashe Panyangara set about annihilating Australia. In the Under-19 World Cup, it seems "favourite" is a grossly misplaced tag.

The only pity is that nobody but the fans in the stands witnessed these upsets, thanks to the ICC's TV deal with SetMax, who agreed to televise matches involving India, and no-one else. So for the World Cup's sake, it is important that India progress as far as possible in the competition. But, given the way they too overwhelmed Scotland in their opening fixture, they don't really need the extra incentive.