For Pak, more to CT than excitement of live cricket

Construction and protocol meetings at 11pm and surprise inspections at 5am. Plus on Wednesday night, their team pulled off their highest-ever ODIs chase. If you put the how's the josh question to a country about hosting its first mega cricket event in 29 years, be ready to have your eardrums shattered.

- Sharda Ugra

The ICC Champions Trophy is the first time Pakistan will play independent host of a multilateral world event—featuring more than four teams. (Its previous two World Cups were shared with India (1987), Sri Lanka was added in 1996.) In June 2008, Pakistan hosted an Asia Cup featuring six teams, including Hong Kong and UAE, but the Champions Trophy is the real biggie. Teams from all corners at one event and naturally an official song is already out. It's called Jeeto Baazi Khel Ke but when Atif Aslam belts the chorus, what's audible is Dharti dekho dhadke, jeeto baazi ladd ke.

Pakistan's famous old grounds have been renovated, the iconic Gaddafi has risen anew. Its old pavilion/club house were demolished, roof removed and its capacity increased between 8,000-10,000 to 34,000. (Good news the gorgeous brickwork still survives around the flanks.) Gaddafi's new LED lights were given a bit of a working over after New Zealand's Rachin Ravindra was struck on the head by the ball while fielding—losing sight of the ball as it came flat off a Khushdil Shah slog sweep.

The steel fences that blocked ground-level views are gone, replaced by a Mohali-like moat. Karachi and Rawalpindi still have their fences but there's been the usual ICC smartening up: fixed seating, new replay screens and the National Stadium's previously foreboding main building painted in seaside white and blue.