Adelaide: Emirates airline, being one of the sponsors of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, raises the tempo for the event from the moment you board one of their flights to Adelaide.

The head rest of the seat in front had the World Cup logo embedded on its flap, while our welcome drink was served on a coaster that had the trophy’s image on it as well!

This airline’s support for cricket has been remarkable, although they do support other sporting events in a big way.

Their in-flight magazine, through specific figures, describes the tale of their 25 years of commitment to sports sponsorship around the world. Emirates sponsors all three major ICC tournaments — the 50-over and Twenty20 World Cups and the Champions Trophy. They have also been sponsors of three football World Cups in 2006 in Germany, 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil, plus three Grand Slam tournaments in tennis — the French Open, US Open and Australian Open.

Many Pakistan fans and journalists were also on the flight, taking the connection from Karachi, hence the conversation on the flight revolved mostly around cricket.

“This is the our best chance to beat India in a World Cup,” remarked a Pakistan fan from Karachi, who was among the lucky few who managed to get a ticket for the Adelaide match, which was sold out in 20 minutes.

The Adelaide airport was filled with Indian fans since a flight had also just landed. One could hear many of them informing their folks back home of their safe landing while waiting in the serpentine queue for immigration.

Authorities there had a tough time informing everyone that it was against the law to use a mobile while waiting for immigration, so almost immediately most of them returned to discussing the prospects in the India-Pakistan match on Sunday.

Australian customs follow a strict policy on permitting food into the country, and many Indian passengers who had carried a lot from their country had to explain the contents to custom officials. This created a huge delay.

The driver of the taxi that I hired from the airport was curious to know whether I had also come to watch the India-Pakistan match. He informed me that the road we were taking to reach the hotel was called the Sir Donald Bradman Drive.

“I saw Bradman when I was a schoolboy. I met his grandson too once, but he never played cricket — he opted for soccer instead. No one from his family retained the Bradman surname since they did not want to be compared with him,” the driver informed me.

He was every enthusiastic and pointed out many Indian and Pakistani restaurants on the way, remarking: “They will do brisk business in the next four days.”

He also provided me with a brochure on restaurants that had names like Bollywood Restaurant, Banana Leaf South Indian Restaurant, British India and Biryani House.