The venue may be new but some things about the cricket summer never change — bag searches, daft wigs, empty corporate seats, the Barmies and their bugler, Kwik Cricket demonstrations, Mike Gatting playing the court jester. You can take a Test out of England but you will never take England out of the Test.

One of the more curious fears about Cardiff was that it would feel alien, altogether too Welsh. Another was that it would not cope — there were hysterical forecasts of a crumbling pitch, gridlocked roads and anything from cloudy beer to blocked toilets antagonising the discerning spectator from across the Bridge.

Given that nothing bar the language feels foreign about the Welsh, and that this city has been making an enviable reputation staging 80,000-cover events for the past ten years, such presumptions were insulting. Sure enough, two days in and Test cricket in Cardiff feels little different to most provincial English venues, which is at once reassuring and a touch disappointing.

The watchwords of this game are friendly efficiency. It is difficult to find fault with the arrangements or their execution, plaudits not normally associated with the baptism of a new sports venue under the most intense scrutiny imaginable. The negative? In striving for slick modernity, Cardiff has sacrificed character and individuality, although not necessarily for ever.

Paul Russell, the Glamorgan chairman, has been single-minded. “We aim to be seen as the best ground outside London in terms of comfort, service and spectator experience,” he said. He was also disconcertingly candid about its corporate priorities, describing it as “a conference centre with a cricket pitch attached”.

If the latter remark induced many uneasy squirms, perhaps even in his own offices, the primary ambitions are admirable and Russell’s team have gone a long way towards delivering them. The SWALEC Stadium is not as charming as Trent Bridge or as well appointed as Edgbaston but it has married some of the finer virtues of both grounds and can already be preferred to the faded monoliths of Old Trafford and Headingley Carnegie.

The environment helps. Cardiff is a young thruster, a city almost Australian in its outlook. It knows how to entertain. For diversions during this match, without leaving town, sample the Welsh Proms, a stage adaptation of The Thorn Birds, the Food and Drink Festival or even Down Under Live, championing the appeal of emigrating to join the enemy.

But Cardiff — or, rather, the Glamorgan club running the show — has specifically set out to make its cricketing pilgrims feel welcome, and spared nothing in the effort.

Hence, three hours before play yesterday, buses were ferrying in spectators from the park-and-ride sites and a fleet of golf buggies was Hoovering up passengers closer to the stadium.

No one had to walk, unless you fancied that charmed stroll along the banks of the Taff. Even there you were met by women in green T-shirts ready with directions, and distracted by such witty placards as “Old South Wales welcomes New South Wales”.

Access was smooth — there are electronic signs from the motorway, Cardiff has many approach roads and a crowd of 16,000 is small fry to a place that coped commendably with FA Cup Finals. More cars can be parked, and at less cost, than around most English Test grounds and this one has the added benefit of a pub at the gates of the park. Y Mochyn Du (the Old Black Pig) serves a full Welsh breakfast for £7.50, like the Lord’s Tavern used to do before it lost its soul.

You cannot get a drink inside the ground before play starts, Glamorgan having taken the unusually selfless decision to limit profits by not encouraging people to start quaffing pints at 10am. Only in Wales are the words beer and Brains spoken sensibly together.

A staggering number of stewards are on duty at the ground but there is no officiousness, just a lot of smiles and an impression they are genuinely trying to help rather than obstruct. This cheerfulness extends through the staff and must be wearing them out — the trick will be to sustain it to the fifth day, and again into next year.

For there will be a next year, of that there is already no doubt. And then the challenge will be to improve on a fine start. One aspect that should develop naturally is educating people that they can walk to the one “lung” of the ground, behind the pavilion, where a public champagne bar (£8 a glass) stands largely undiscovered next to the corporate marquee. Another thing to address is the toilets — there are never enough in any venue but, while the catering coped with the lunchtime rush, the gents did not.

Finally, there is that intangible character to impose. The beer, beef, cakes, water and ice cream bore the national label but the ground lacked it, just as it lacked that softening that will come with time and care. Make more of the surrounding park and river, find a picnic area that defines Cardiff. Then the newest of venues will have almost everything, even the Welshness so many feared.