If the three-day intensive coaching camp at Eden Gardens was a prelude to Pakistan for Team India, off the field was hardly any different. The boys in blue, who the staff at Taj Bengal — hosting the team for a number of years — would always “bump into” during their previous stays, were “hardly visible” this time around.

The focus was completely on cricket, and though there was no confirmation of any code of conduct, Sunday night fever at Incognito or a quick bite at The Hub turned out to be a complete no-no. It was almost as if behind-closed-doors was the place to be, in the final lap to Lahore.

Food was the first casualty, with hours to go for the high-security tour. For a team known to freak out on various kinds of cuisine — from Johannesburg to Jaipur — there were no team dinners or special orders to the chef this time, making it the most lacklustre culinary expedition to Calcutta for Sourav Ganguly and gang.

Room service was the order of the night and less was more in all they ordered. “Whatever they were eating, it seemed to be little,” said a member of the hotel staff. “We did get the occasional order for sandwiches and burgers, but otherwise, it was the usual stuff,” added another. Chicken was very much on the menu, which was “completely Indian”, but then “as light as possible”.

Time constraints may have played a part in the subdued stay at the Taj. “Time kahan?” asked young pacer Irfan Pathan, who had hardly stepped out of his room during the three days. “We come back very tired from practice, have our daal-roti, relax a while by watching TV or chatting with team-mates, and that’s about it.” Agreed spinner Murli Kartik: “There’s been little time to do anything else apart from the practice sessions.”

The players would be out of the hotel by 6 am, head for Eden Gardens, to return only after 6 pm. The fatigue from the gruelling sessions and the pressures of the upcoming tour left little scope for anything more than the usual visit to the hotel gym.

Security, according to hotel authorities, was hardly an issue. “We’ve handled security when Pakistan and India were staying at the hotel in 1999,” pointed out a hotel spokesperson.

But the cricketers did keep largely to themselves, making it tough for even hotel staff to reach them and get autographs on requests. Only in the final minutes of the stay did the mood lighten and a giant cake was cut to celebrate team tot Parthiv Patel’s birthday and wish the boys “best of luck”.