Radisson Hotel: Praying for sixes and fours actually pays (back)

Radisson Hotel, Delhi: With a huge collage of cricketers and flags of the participating nations splashed across its façade, and a giant World Cup replica on top, Radisson turns passing heads on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway. During the course of the tournament, the hotel plans to serve cuisine from the cricketing nations in dishes shaped like cricket equipment (we're not sure if there'd be a 'Box' shaped dish too). At the bar, you get 25 per cent off on your drink if India scores a boundary and if it's a six or a wicket, the discount is 50 per cent.

TGIF, Delhi: Watch the India ties on the giant screens put up at its two pubs in the capital. The decor will simulate a pavilion and guests can participate in games such as the wheel of fortune and win Castle Lager cricket merchandise.

Taj Krishna, Hyderabad: If you want to make the World Cup a high-spirited affair, head for Hyderabad. The entrance to the Taj Krishna's coffee shop simulates the entrance to a cricket ground. There's a special tent erected inside the shop where guests can imbibe beer and white liquor between 3 pm and 7 pm, throughout the duration of the tournament. The group's other hotel in Hyderabad, Taj Residency celebrates the cricket fever with a liquor buffet at its bar Attrium: for Rs 650 you can drink all you can.

Geoffrey's, Bangalore: Geoffrey's big plans include 30-feet wide projection screens and waiters dressed in complete cricket gear (pads and helmets included). That's right, we're wondering how waiters in gloves will serve. The specialty menu will be cricket oriented with the likes of sixer kababs and boundary fried meat balls. Guests can participate in contests during the match. Prizes include cases of Fosters beer or dinner coupons to dine free at Hotel Harsha and Park Plaza.

Tendulkar's: Authentic Sachin

Tendulkar's Mumbai: What better place to cheer the Indian team and its pivotal member than Tendulkar's. The four month old Sachin Tendulkar signature restaurant in Colaba has transformed for the World Cup into a virtual South African cricket stadium. As they enter the restarant, guests are presented a kit bag containing caps. Whistles and sixer banners. Strong vocal chords and lung-power are pre-requistes. And table manners be damned. The restaurant is dedicated to the worship of India's batting machine: autographed blowups, T-shirts and a whole host of memorabilia on the walls. Then there are the cocktails like Shane's Been Warned (Gin, guava juice, perfait amour) and Gary's Gone Sober (Vodka and lime). A meal could however set you back Rs 1,500. That'll make sure Tendulkar laughs his way to the bank, one way or the other.

...ON THE WEB

www.cricinfo.com: The mother of all cricket sites, Cricinfo provides ball-by-ball commentary, and boasts the biggest online database. The live scores can get jammed every once in a while due to heavy traffic. There are audio-video reports as well, but you need the RealOne player and a broadband connection that works. The site could have jazzed up its design for the premier cricket tournament, instead it chose to retain its year-old functional but tired look.

www.bbc.co.uk/cwc2003: The Beeb's cricket section has a better selection of stories on World Cup than most other sites and goes beyond the usual news agency reports. It has exhaustive coverage on all the 14 participating teams with a separate section for each. The design is elegant and there are a couple of fun but graphic-heavy games.

www.cricketnext.com: It's the official internet partner for the World Cup. Like all other cricketing sites, it also provides live scores and has daily columns from the likes of Dilip Vengsarkar and Raj Singh Dungarpur. Also has plenty of World Cup related statistics and everything you wanted to know about South Africa 2003.

www.cricket365.com: A useful site for those interested in online betting. But since any form of betting on cricket from the Indian soil is prohibited, you have to be content with following the odds with the William Hill ticker. If you plan to make it to South Africa for the latter stages of the tournament, there's a section on accommodation and travel. The fun section has a selection of lookalikes: according to the site Don Bradman looks like Kevin Spacey and Shoaib Akthar, like Al Pacino. We beg to differ.

www.howstat.com: A delight for the statistically minded, Howstat provides a list of recent milestones as well as ones in the offing. It has its own Test and odi ratings and complete scorecards and player statistics for Tests and odis ever played. You can download an interesting screensaver which provides factoids and numbers that get updated everyday. Also, test your cricketing knowledge with a tough-to-crack online quiz.

...ON THE GO

When every brand worth its name is doing its bit to cash in on the World Cup fever, mobile phone service providers, unlike in 1999, are conspicuous by their silence. All that is, except Hutch. That's because the company is one of the official sponsors of the World Cup and has also won the exclusive rights for mobile telephony content for the World Cup.

Starting February 8, Hutch GPRS subscribers will be able to receive 10-second video clips of the best moments of every match. Till March 31, the GPRS service will cost just Rs 99 instead of the usual Rs 249 per month. However, only the Ericsson P800 and the Nokia 3650 can support video clips. You can invest in a home theatre system for the cost of these phones. But customers who have the more readily available and lower priced mms enabled GPRS phones will be able to receive progressive stills of World Cup moments on their phones. No great fun, but on the move, We'll take anything.