Whistle-stop World Cup

Any sane person, of course, flies.So, naturally, come February 10, I'm standing on a platform, with blazer and raincoat, temperatures heading into the mid-thirties Celsius, about to undergo my first experience of both overseas ODI cricket and Australian rail travel. This suburban hop from airport to city centre is no more than an hors d'oeuvre for the main trips: the Overland (Melbourne-Adelaide), Indian Pacific (Sydney-Perth), and the Ghan (Darwin-Adelaide), the latter two crossing Australia from east to west and north to south respectively.Melbourne is where the journey starts, for both me and England. Boarding in Adelaide, I'll only spend two nights on the train, but since they'll be in a chair rather than a bed, I could be in for a harrowing time.Talking of ordeals, England v New Zealand will be on, but there's no internet connection available on the train, and little mobile reception as we head into the outback. Much like England's supposed anachronistic approach to batting, stuck somewhere in the wilderness of the 1990s, the Indian Pacific has its own time zone as it trundles westwards across the Nullarbor, to soften the two-and-a-half hour jump from South Australia to Western Australia. It's easy to lose track of minutes, hours, and even days, as one unfortunate passenger discovered: waiting patiently by the door on the morning of the third day, he had to have the news broken to him that there were still 24 hours to go.On the fourth day since its Sydney departure, Perth welcomes the Indian Pacific. A sort of captain and vice-captain relationship.Unlike the Indian Pacific leg in Red Service (or translated into Jeremy Clarkson: Scum Class), on the Ghan I've moved up the order to Gold Service, which means a private cabin, complimentary meals, drinks, and off-train excursions around Katherine and Alice Springs. Yet dinner arrangements throw passengers closer together, providing companionship, and an overall sense of shared holiday-making.All rails lead, apparently, to Adelaide, where the Indian Pacific pauses, and the Overland and the Ghan terminate, as do England, with their World Cup "campaign" going dramatically off the rails / hitting the buffers / running out of steam (take your pick of hackneyed railway cliché) at Adelaide Oval.Time for the last leg, both of the World Cup and the three Great Southern Rail journeys.