The Hague - the latest stop on the franchise T20 train. Abhishek Bachchan, a Bollywood actor, was meeting people and taking selfies. He had carried the trophy to the middle earlier, before the start of the European T20 Premier League opener between Amsterdam Flames and Rotterdam Dockers. He is one of the ETPL's co-founders.
In the middle, Roelof van der Merwe was coming to the end of his own spell for Dockers in the first innings.
Glamour and cricket mingled, two unlikely figures on the same stage, more or less, on a Wednesday morning in the Netherlands.
While Bachchan talked to investors and other suits, van der Merwe was picking up wickets - two of them. It was a canny spell on a green-tinged surface. He flighted the deliveries instead of relying on his usual skiddy quicker ones. "There wasn't much turn up for grabs, but if you hit the top of the stumps, you might find something," he assessed later.
His spell of 2 for 21 was the most economical on the day, and set up a five-wicket win for Dockers. It also featured the first real highlight of the tournament, the kind that social media managers bank on to go viral. In the tenth over, he floated a delivery outside off to Curtis Campher, who hit his drive to Faf du Plessis, waiting in the covers. Du Plessis put in a full-stretched dive and, straining at the edge of physics, scooped it up.
Van der Merwe is 41 years old. Du Plessis is 42. More significantly, they came up through the South Africa domestic circuit at the same time, almost two decades ago now. "We've been playing cricket for so long," van der Merwe said to the broadcasters wryly later when they reminded him of the 83 years between them.
He made his debut for South Africa in 2009, but switched over to Netherlands later. And at the T20 World Cup in 2022, he took the catch of the tournament, which went a long way in delivering a miracle win that knocked South Africa out. Just a year later, he played his part in another win against South Africa, this time at the 2023 ODI World Cup.
By then, du Plessis had already retired in Tests, to become a T20 freelancer: he has consistently played as a top-order veteran in the IPL, the CPL, the PSL, the SA20 and MLC - we might be missing some - in the five years since then. A utilitarian like van der Merwe last played one of those big tournaments in 2023, at the Hundred. His list of teams is impressive for a player from Netherlands, but du Plessis' CV is much, much bigger.
If you saw van der Merwe and du Plessis celebrating Campher's wicket, though, it would appear completely routine, like they do it all the time - worlds removed from the ecstasy on van der Merwe's face at the 2022 T20 World Cup, knowing he had just done something special. Here in The Hague, he was getting a taste of franchise-circuit normalcy. High-fives, a few pats on the back, time to move on. Later in the over, he had Tim David caught on the boundary ropes. The celebration then was more familiar.
When asked about playing in the ETPL opener, van der Merwe said, "We've been speaking about this tournament so long, getting to be out there was great." He was underselling the circuitous journey most of European cricket has been on to get to this point.
A Euro T20 Slam was first conceived in 2019, then cancelled two weeks before it began because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Then the ETPL was announced for 2025. Investments failed to materialise. Finally, a year later, the creases have been ironed out, and the likes of van der Merwe - good enough to feature in national teams, but not in demand for franchise tournaments - have turned up.
Take Bas de Leede, who was announced captain of Netherlands earlier this month: he starred with a 53-ball 75 for Flames in the first innings here. David Wiese, another two-team international who finished his career with Namibia two years ago, took 2 for 28. And finally, Italy's Ben Manenti hit a 17-ball 30, a crucial contribution in the chase.
It was du Plessis and his 55-ball 83* that sealed the game for Dockers. His performance underlined the fact that the stars were well and truly here. Over the next month, they will ply their trade across the Netherlands and Ireland. At the other end, Wiese had returned with bat in hand, scoring an unbeaten 27 himself.
Rahul Dravid, attached with Dublin Guardians, watched from the pavilion. Tournament co-owners Steve Waugh and Bachchan spoke to the media, and the latter gave an interview in the commentary box. "If cricketing royalty is going to be here, it must be worthy," Bachchan said at one point.
Maybe this will be the new normal for European cricket. The local cricketers blending in with the stars, in the middle and off the field. A total of 38.1 overs of cricket with 157 plays 158. Watching on, you could believe this tournament will make stars of its own, away from the more starry leagues.