Welcome to the Sandton Sun Hotel

Visiting the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg is rather like popping in for lunch at a rich relative’s house in the shires. Unless you actually live there, the opulence is almost overwhelmingly in your face. The lifts silently glide up and down a brass-cum-gold framework, like little golden jelly beans. There are no normal light fittings, instead a garish display of brass pipes demands your attention that the café is, in fact, right here, as if you could possibly miss it. There are dozens of staff, all of whom glide through the air looking very busy, yet the moment they spot your cup looking empty they’re onto it in a flash.

It’s a quiet, subdued place to stay and is currently swarming with international cricketers. The Associates were here first, but the Indian Premier League players have started their unerring swagger into the city and the hotel, and soon it will be theirs - if, that is, they can drag the Afghanistan team out of the pool. The battle will be long and hard I fear, and my money is on the Afghans.

It’s a nice place to work, too. A couple of interviews with an Irish and Namibian player happened randomly over coffee outside, a relaxed environment which helps both interviewee and interviewer.

All sorts have been spotted. Owais Shah and Ashish Nehra (remember him?) ambled in for a late brunch, neither of whom were keen on being interviewed – understandably so given your reporter’s Keith Chegwin-esque doorstepping method. Glenn McGrath, in flip-flops and t-shirt, did a spot of shopping in the equally brilliant shopping centre which adjoins the hotel. Dave Warner, Paul Collingwood and other Delhi Davedevils are floating around too, invisibly so far. Red-and-white Europeans, of which I proudly claim membership of its sunburnt fraternity, make up the rest.

Leaving the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg is rather like leaving after lunch at a rich relative’s house in the shires. Digestion aside, you can’t help feel a little jealous at their pad.