Overwhelming Welsh hospitality

I currently feel like an International Olympic Committee delegate on a fact-finding mission, bulging with gifts and being indulged wherever I go. The Welsh people may be the nicest on earth. Or at least the ones involved in the staging of the Test are, smiling and asking questions as if they really are interested in how well I slept. They are in the park offering directions, at the gate checking tickets, pressing the buttons for the lift, welcoming me at the top of the lift, opening doors, offering food and drinks. So much food and drink.

Free gifts and functions have dominated the first two days. I hope a longer belt comes next. In the interests of transparency and full disclosure, things recently missing from the accounts of some British MPs, here is a list of the sweetners: a hip flask (given away to a more worthy recipient), whiskey, rain jacket, headset, thermos, mug, Welsh dragon soft toy, satchel, memory sticks, notebooks, drink vouchers, dinner invitations. I think that’s everything.

For Wales, this isn’t so much about getting its first Test, as being a regular five-day venue for future engagements. In England it wasn’t – and in some sections still isn’t – a popular choice for the opening Ashes encounter and there is an intense charm offensive here to remove the doubt from the doubters.

A reception was held in the awesome Cardiff Castle last night, where guests stood in the banquet room admiring the artwork on the walls, the views out the tiny windows, the narrow hallways with lots of exits for Robin Hood-types, and the Welsh rarebit (swanky cheese on toast). Still, not everyone was happy.

One veteran of the circuit, who usually saves his entertaining arguments for opposition captains in West Yorkshire club cricket, tore up his invitation in front of the gateman after initially being refused entry for arriving too late. Once that decision was over-ruled, a member of his party wasn’t allowed in for trying to re-enter after picking up his girlfriend from the station. Until then he was one of Cardiff’s greatest promoters, but left muttering about bureaucracy, government interference and the beauty of the Rose Bowl.