India's fourth largest city is quite possibly its most understated. Travelling around Chennai, whether it be by train or rickshaw or foot, you would never guess that it's an economic powerhouse and a queen of showbiz (the Tamil film industry, known as Kollywood, is based in the city).

What you can't miss is the change in climate. Flying in on the same plane as England's cricketers on Thursday, eager faces peeked out of the windows as we skipped over the tops of thousands of coconut trees, heralding a change from the cool climate of Bangalore to a more tropical setting.

Hearing that the train cost just 6 rupees (15 cents) to get into town, I ignored the numerous taxi drivers and headed across to the station. By the time I got there I was pouring with sweat, despite it being after five in the afternoon, but I've always found that trains make more than just economic sense in India because it's also the best way to get a feel for a city or the landscape.

As I stood by the open door and we made our way into the city, the familiar sights of India whizzed by. By the side of the train makeshift housing had been cobbled together out of all manner of materials, while behind them washing adorned colourfully-painted blocks of flats.

Children played cricket in any dry open area while water buffaloes wallowed in wet ones. We crossed a filthy river, then we were flying past a row of tea stalls with people gathered around them slowly sipping a hot brew. A street was suddenly clogged up as a religious procession with a band made its way along, the fellows near the front waving for the traffic to make way for this special event.

Despite three previous trips to India this is the first time I've made it to Chennai. People are even friendlier than the rest of the country and they all love Test cricket.

Certainly they deserve to see more international action than they get, but the redevelopment of the Chidambaram Stadium will hopefully aid that. They've done a terrific job with it, and unlike Mumbai and Kolkata they finished with time to spare.

While the stadium used to be entirely enclosed by shortish old stands, only one of those stands now remains - the one housing the Madras Cricket Club. The rest of the stadium has six or seven stand-alone units which tower over the oval and boast modern seating.

It's always sad to see old grounds demolished - and they intend to rip up the MCC stand and modernise that as well - but at least this has been tastefully done.