NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Pak tour on, says Lele

The BCCI will shortly give the final seal of approval to the projected tour of India by the Pakistan cricket team in January, despite daily threats from Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

BCCI secretary J Y Lele said that a meeting of the tours, programmes and fixtures committee has been convened for November 14-15.

The committee is headed by Kamal Morarka and comprises seven other members, and is expected to finalise the venues for the matches.

From the other side, the announcement that Pakistan was finally coming to India for a full tour after a gap of 11 years was made by Pakistan Cricket Board president Khalid Mehmood. Some Pakistani dailies have also carried the names of the venues, but Lele said that the PCB had merely been given some choices, and that nothing had been finalised as yet. "India has no dearth of international venues," Lele said.

Once finalised, the list of venues will be sent to the government of India for final approval.

Mehmood declined to comment on Thackeray's threat, terming it too premature for reaction while discussing the tour with Indian journalists in Dhaka during the recent Wills Cup. The Pakistan media however quoted Mehmood as saying that Thackeray was a braggart and that neither he nor his party had any significance outside Mumbai.

Pakistan led by Imran Khan had defeated India 1-0 in a five Test series and also won the one-day contest the last time the side toured India. India reciprocated by sending a team under K Srikkanth, which drew the three Test series but lost the ODI series.