Coming home is always an emotional experience, and the longer the interval in between such visits, the more pronounced are the observations. A lot has changed politically - at least on the surface - in the 18 months since I last came to Zimbabwe, but it's only noticeable in certain areas.

The street lamposts have rusted further and fewer of them work, the potholes are deeper and more abundant, and generally Harare's infrastructure has aged beyond repair. Yet the old vibrancy has returned to the faces of the people, who have always ranked among the friendliest in the world. Only Indians give them a run for their money in that department.

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of going to watch Zimbabwe take on Brazil - the most surreal experience I've had in quite some time. There was a general sense of disbelief, all muddled up with euphoria, with no-one quite able to believe that they were watching Kaka and Dani Alves in action.

That translated onto the faces of Rohit Sharma and Nuwan Kulasekara, who looked down into the vast bowl of the national stadium, its concrete stands laced with chaos, with a mixture of awe and fear on their faces. We'd all arrived on Zimbabwe Cricket buses via police escort - the civilised way to travel - but the scenes inside the stadium were wild and foreign to the visiting cricketers. Only Virat Kohli looked unfazed, his hairstyle naturally unmoved in spite of the dusty environment.

Soccer is Zimbabwe's biggest passion, followed closely by the music of Oliver Mtukudzi, but such moments of ecstacy are rare in the sport. The Warriors struggle to reach the African Cup of Nations, let alone the World Cup, and so top-level international engagements are few and far between.

Cricket holds far more potential in that regard, but interest levels are low. Throughout the nineties Harare Sports Club was packed for every ODI, with the crowd mostly made up by the small white population. A large number were farmers, so the land invasions in the first years of the noughties accounted for many, and a brutal application of racial quotas by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union soon after stripped the national team of its best talent and left a young side that was difficult to support.

The hope was that the majority of Zimbabwe's population might associate better with the team and take more of an interest in cricket. Six years down the line, the ground is 80 per cent black but 15 per cent full as Zimbabwe take on India. There's plenty of enthusiasm as the home side close in on their second victory over the Indians in a week, but it's difficult not to notice the bare stands next to those waving the national flag.

The general prognosis is that there are better days ahead for Zimbabwe cricket, and the victories over a second-string Indian side are a crucial part to building morale in and around the team. The hope now must be that those wins will begin to draw the fans in an often success-starved nation.