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| April 3, 2003 | Thursday | Muharram 30, 1424 |
Bachchan for resumption of India-Pakistan cricket ties
NEW DELHI, April 2: India’s top filmstar Amitabh Bachchan on Wednesday called for resumption of cricket matches between India and Pakistan, saying the game should not be a victim of politics.
“Sports and art should not become a prey to political compulsions,” Bachchan said at a function where Saurav Ganguly’s World Cup squad was presented with seven-star luxury apartments by the team sponsors.
“But if the government feels that we should not play Pakistan now, we should obey that,” Bachchan added.
Arch-rivals India and Pakistan had on Saturday called off forthcoming cricket tours of each other’s countries.
The Indian government has banned bilateral cricket with Pakistan since 1999 in protest against Islamabad’s alleged support to Islamic militants in the disputed region of Kashmir. Pakistan denies the allegations.
The teams, however, clash in multi-nation events like the recent World Cup where India defeated Pakistan by six wickets in the preliminary round.
Team sponsors Sahara India gave all 15 members of the World Cup team, and the support staff led by coach John Wright, luxury apartments despite India’s 125-run defeat in the final against Australia.
“Our team won other matches convincingly and our players put up some of the most fabulous performances in the World Cup,” Sahara India chairman Subrata Roy said.
Roy said the apartment complex in the western state of Maharashtra, worth more than US$4.7 million, will be named the ‘World Cup Enclave’ when it is ready later this year.
“This gift is just a token of our appreciation for the team. We are sure our team will perform even better in the future,” said Roy.—AFP
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