A three-member Indian sports delegation headed by Suresh Kalmadi, President of Indian Olympic Association (IOC) called on Lt Gen Tauqir Zia, Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board at his residence in Rawalpindi on Friday.

Braham Swarup Ojha and Janardhan Singh Gehlot were other members of the delegation. The meeting lasted for one hour, which was basically a courtesy visit. Although the delegation had no cricket mandate, but Lt Gen Tauqir said that they could forward their recommendation to the Indian Government.

Lt Gen Tauqir Zia termed the meeting as the first step forward towards normalization of cricket affairs between the two countries. "This is the first positive response between the countries", he said. The PCB Chairman hoped that the delegation might succeed in influencing the Indian Ministry to restart the cricket tours early. "This is a high level delegation and I hope their findings would be given weightage by the people who matter in India," he said.

Lt Gen Tauqir said Pakistan has always welcomed any move that aims at restarting cricket ties between the two countries.

The Indian delegation leader said that they were here to break the ice. "Our first and foremost job is to break the ice with the Indian contingent participation in the 9th South Asian Federation (SAF) games to be held in Islamabad," he said.

Kalmadi said that they were here to finalize the dates of the 9th SAF Games. "Our sports ministry also authorized us to talk about restarting cricket affairs between the two countries," he said.

Khalid Butt
Media Manager
March 29, 2002

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