The only way is up at the Bloem T20

To know what’s important about the first T20 between South Africa and Bangladesh in Bloemfontein on Thursday at 6pm‚ look up.

Way up‚ all the way to the new floodlights that will beam down on a day/night game there for the first time‚ and with the kind of incandescence that will make spectators forget that it’s dark in the streets outside.

The lights are lithium‚ don’t you know‚ and very larney.

While they were used in the latter hours of play during the second Test between the teams at the ground last month‚ once night falls on Thursday they will be the scene’s crowning glory.

The cricket?

It’ll be down there somewhere‚ just another game on a tour that has been forgotten before it’s over.

That’s no fault of South Africa‚ who’ve smashed Bangladesh every time they’ve been put in front of them — in two Tests and three one-day internationals.

But the Bangladeshis‚ oy vey.

They couldn’t have performed more poorly if they tried.

Their greatest achievement on this tour is that three of them found a restaurant that was open after 10pm in East London! On a Sunday! Even that got them into trouble: they broke curfew by 34 minutes.

JP Duminy‚ who will captain South Africa in the absence of Faf du Plessis and his lower back injury‚ is taking things seriously regardless.

“We are here to play games of cricket against them‚” he told reporters in Bloemfontein.

“What they get up to in and around that is at their discretion.

“They’re in a bit of hot water and there’s nothing we can say or do about it that’s going to make it better or worse.

“These things do creep up now and then‚ especially when you’re not playing well.”

To describe Bangladesh’s performance in South Africa this past month as “not playing well” is the kindest thing that could be said about them.

They have been outplayed in all departments‚ not least because they have seen demons that simply weren’t there in some of the flattest pitches yet prepared in this country.

Something else besides the floodlights to look out for on Thursday will be whether Robbie Frylinck makes his senior international debut at 33‚ and having walked a path to get there that’s nothing like the freeway that swept the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Aiden Markram to the top.

Sadly‚ Markram is not in the squad and so cannot become the first player to be run out on debut in all three formats.

He is one of only four who have suffered that fate in their debut Test and ODI‚ and he’s in good company: Basil D’Oliveira was the first.

Also look for the names of Taskin Ahmed‚ Nasir Hossain and Shafiul Islam in Bangladesh’s XI.

They’re the three rebels who dared to prowl the empty streets of East London late on Sunday‚ in the hours after South Africa won the third ODI by 200 runs.

It seems the reason the players are in the dwang is not because they were out and about but because they were in a casino.

That’s not cricket in suffocatingly conservative Bangladesh‚ where a proper stink has been raised about the incident — not least by Nazmul Hassan‚ who is trying to be re-elected president of the board.

If only he showed the same level of concern for the quality of the cricket his team are playing.