We're a cricket-obsessed country. Now, it's not as though we are averse to other kinds of game playing! But, the action on and off the cricket field is fodder for our collective sloth! Yes, we are quite content to sit on our armchairs and animatedly flay our arms and cluck-cluck our vocal cords over our 'Men in Blue'. Our television screens are dominated by cricket, even when a match is not being played. Cricket stars (we stopped calling them players a very long time ago) have a parallel (or is it primary?) career in advertising.

And, smart hostesses have tapped into this cricket hysteria to create a buzz around their own soirées. Since theme parties are forever in vogue and our hostesses-on-the-prowl need a new fancy they can fashion into a personal Page 3 statement, we thought we'd draft a guide to hosting the perfect 'cricket theme' party. So, pad up and get set to host a do that's to die for.

Remember the glamorous Parmesh Godrej and her stellar soirées for Imran Khan - where actresses, ingénues and society babes all but screamed, "Gimmie Immie!" and rumouredly never left her Juhu beach house till breakfast the next morning? That's the stuff of legend, lore and more. Which bona fide hostess wouldn't want to rival that! Well, it's not going to be easy. Or, perhaps, even possible. Mrs. G didn't need no Idiot's Guide and never will.