Pakistan begin India Test tour amid unprecedented security
AFP
23 January 1999
GWALIOR, India, Jan 23 (AFP) - Pakistani cricketers began their first
Test tour of India in 12 years here Saturday amid unprecedented
security despite a last-minute withdrawal of a sabotage campaign by
Hindu militants.
Some 13,000 security forces personnel in and around the ground dwarfed
the 3, 000 spectators, who passed various check-points on adjoining
roads before they gained entry to the fortified stadium.
Gun-toting commandos and sniffer dogs guarded the dressing rooms of
the two teams, despite the withdrawal of threats by Hindu
fundamentalists to sabotage the tour in protest against Pakistan's
support for separatists in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram said his team had not experienced any
problems due to the tight security.
``We have no problem about this security because the officials have
tried their best to see that we are not stuck up in our rooms. We have
been told by the Indian government that we will not be stopped from
going out of the hotel,'' he told AFP.
However, he expressed dismay that a cricket match between the two
countries, who have fought three wars and remain arch-foes, had been
politicised.
``I am not angry, but disappointed. I have always believed that good
neighbourliness and friendship between the two countries can be
promoted through the game,'' he told the United News of India.
``As far as we are concerned, once we are on the cricket pitch, we
switch onto the game and forget everything else.''
Hindu militants belonging to the Shiv Sena party had dug up New Delhi
pitch and vandalised the headqaurters of the governing body of Indian
cricket in Bombay.
Bal Thackeray, chief of Shiv Sena, allied to the ruling Hindu
nationalist government, called off the campaign under pressure shortly
before the Pakistanis arrived in India on Thursday.
The sabotage campaign came under attack from all political parties and
the opposition Congress party had demanded an ``independent and
impartial'' probe.
Thackeray on Saturday continued his anti-Pakistan campaign and said
the touring team was ``most welcome for sight-seeing'' in the capital
New Delhi and would not be allowed to play in his western city of
Bombay, capital of Maharashtra.
``No match between India and Pakistan will be allowed in Maharashtra,''
Thackeray, who turned 72 on Saturday said.
Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi slammed the Shiv Sena party and called
them a ``bunch of cowards'' seeking to intimidate the common man through
violence.
``Those in power in the state are nothing but a bunch of cowards who
had gotten together evoking the name of the great (Hindu) warrior
... and are out to terrorise people.
``What (the) Maharashtra government is doing is not just a political
issue but is related to the very soul of the nation. Every patriotic
and peace-loving Indian should fight these forces,'' she told her
Congress supporters.
However, the first day of the match started off peacefully with
Pakistan denting India's confidence ahead of next week's Test series
tour as batsmen Yousuf Youhanna made 124 and Inzamam-ul Haq an
aggressive 98 not out.
Tourists shrugged off the tight security and an inauspicious start to
knock up 334-6 declared and then reduced India A to 63-2 in the
three-day tour opener at the Roop Singh stadium here.
The Pakistani captain won the first round as both Indian opening
batsmen, selected for the first Test starting at Madras on January 28,
failed to survive his torrid opening spell.
The Pakistanis appeared affected more by lack of match practice than
the stifling security, as veteran opener Saeed Anwar departed off the
second ball of the match and his partner Wajahatullah Wasti also
failed to score.
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