Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton came visiting Delhi on Saturday and Mobile ESPN found him in a jolly good mood.

By Chetan Narula

It was the weather probably for he was completely taken aback by the heat, "Does it stay so hot here all the time?" Had he come a week earlier, when it poured down buckets, he might have been caught in a traffic jam all night.

"It will be a good Indian Grand Prix as and when it happens, because most of us drivers like to drive in the heat. We wear 4 kgs of protective clothing at the races, and lose a lot of weight during a race, so it should be the hottest Grand Prix of the year. But having said that I must say I love it here, it's always raining back home in Britain", said the 2008 F1 World Champion.

This was Lewis' second visit to India. Last year, he had visited Mumbai while he was still fighting for the championship. "India is an amazing place to be. While I was here last year, and today as well, I saw pretty good drivers on the roads out there. And I thought to myself, there ought to be some one out there good enough to be competitive on the racing circuit," remarked Lewis.

Now, here as the reigning F1 champion, the young champion brought along his silver-hued No.1 McLaren car with him which was displayed at the venue. This was an event hosted by McLaren's principal sponsors Vodafone to promote their contest for the season ending Abu Dhabi GP on November 1. "It amazes me as to how fast Vodafone has grown here in India. I am told they already have a subscriber base of more than 50 million which is an awesome figure", said Lewis.

So was he here to drive that car he brought along? No, Indian F1 fans will have to wait a tad longer to see that blur of Silver-Arrows it seems. For when in India, play as the Indians do! Lewis Hamilton was here to take part in a mini-cricket match for Vodafone VI against Delhi VI, played on a make-shift cricket turf.

And when there is cricket, India's most well known cricket personality is never far away. Harsh Bhogle, the face of cricket on ESPN-STAR, was present to add his unmatchable charm to the proceedings. He tossed the coin, got the match started and told Lewis' team that they would be bowling first.

Fielding at midwicket if you could call it that, Lewis pulled out a stunning catch, displaying his superb reflexes. "That's well caught Lewis, you aren't half bad. Have you ever played tennis ball-cricket before?" quipped Harsha. "I used to play at school, but that was proper cricket, no tennis balls. And I wasn't that good at it", replied the cheeky McLaren driver.

For the record, the match was four-overs a side, three balls in each over. The rules were changed to suit the small playing area, and Delhi VI batting first scored 19 runs. Lewis came in to bat at -2 for 1, yes there was negative scoring in the match, and tried to play some pull shots. "Too fast, too fast, he's bowling too fast, I am not that good at cricket mate", he called to the bowler. Harsha intervened to ask the bowler to send in some slow stuff. But he still couldn't connect bat to ball. "I think he was bowling too slowly now", joked Lewis as Vodafone VI lost by three runs.

Six contest-winners selected by Vodafone got a chance to play him and he wasn't half as bad as the bowling part, as commented by Harsha. "The pitch here suits your bowling Lewis. Here we have an F1 driver who can play some cricket. Thank God he is from England," making the crowd laugh. Lewis, not being one to come in second best, jibed back, "You can make a good comedian mate".

And lest we forget, it wasn't just the playing turf or the weather that the ace driver loves about India. When asked about his girl friend, Nicole Scherzinger dancing to the tunes of Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, he said, "I think it is a brilliant movie and that inspired her to dance to the tunes of that song. It is an amazing video. Both Nicole and I loved that film. In fact she made me watch it!" So when will we see him gyrating in a Pussycat Dolls video? "I think I will stick to the driving," signed off Lewis.