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New row over Test venue mars efforts to save cricket tour
AFP
January 12 1998
NEW DELHI, Jan 11 (AFP) - A Pakistani cricket official began talks here
Tuesday to salvage his team's first Test series on Indian soil in 12 years
amidst a new row over one of the venues.
Brigadier Saeed Rafi, sent by the Pakistan Cricket Board to discuss the
threat by Hindu militants to the tour starting this month, held his first
meetings with Indian cricket officials.
The talks were overshadowed by the New Delhi administration's inability to
provide adequate security for the first Test on January 28 at the Ferozeshah
Kotla ground, where Hindu zealots opposed to the tour dug up the wicket last
week.
Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit said the Test coincided with India's
annual Republic Day celebrations, when police and para-military troops are
deployed across the capital.
Dixit wanted Delhi to switch places with the southern city of Madras, the
venue of the second Test from February 4, but the Board of Control for Cricket
in India refused to change the itinerary.
``It will be difficult to shift matches now because the travel arrangements
have already been made,'' Indian board secretary Jayawant Lele said.
Lele said a final decision would be taken when board president Raj Singh
Dungarpur returns from New Zealand on Thursday from a meeting of the
International Cricket Council.
Cricket officials in Madras said they were ready for any last-minute change.
``We are ready to hold the first Test if the board wants us to,'' said Ashok
Kumbhat, chief organiser of the Test match at the Chepauk ground in Madras.
Delhi cricket chief Ram Babu Gupta said the board's decision was awaited,
but stressed arrangements had been made to hold the first Test as scheduled.
``Everything is in place, even the wicket has been repaired,'' said Gupta, a
former Test umpire. ``We are waiting for the Pakistanis to arrive.''
The Pakistani team, which last played a Test in India in March 1987, is to
arrive here January 21 for a two-Test series, the Asian Test championship
opener against India and a triangular one-day series also featuring Sri Lanka.
Security concerns about the tour were raised when supporters of firebrand
Hindu leader Bal Thackeray, who opposes the matches, dug up the New Delhi pitch.
Hindu fanatics say India should not play cricket with Pakistan because of
the latter's alleged support to Indian insurgents.
The Indian government has pledged to protect the visiting players, but Pakistan says it will monitor the situation until
the last minute.
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