June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

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DUBAI, June 3: The Indian sports minister has dashed any hopes of an immediate revival of cricket ties between Pakistan and India, saying cricket will have to wait till diplomatic relations and rail and bus links are fully restored.

“The new high commissioner of Pakistan hasn’t joined the job in India, the train to Pakistan is still waiting for the green signal and the bus to Lahore remains parked in New Delhi. Let all these things become a reality and then we will think about cricket,” said Vikram Verma, Indian Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports while transiting Dubai on his way to Delhi from London.

He wasn’t sure if his government will grant a request from the Indian cricket board to play a match each in India and Pakistan in September and October citing security concerns and said he doesn’t want Indian “players subjected to any hostile reception” in Pakistan.

“We have to see the mind-set of the Pakistan public....once we are convinced that the atmosphere is right, we will start playing cricket,” he was quoted by Khaleej Times as saying.

Verma was of the view that cricket is not a vital element in normalising relations between warring neighbours saying “nothing has happened in the last 50 years, what’s the guarantee now?”

However, he said, attitudes were changing at his ministry. “Earlier, we used to outrightly reject any such proposal, but now we do consider such requests,” he was quoted as saying.

He said he wasn’t concerned about the Pakistani claim that it lost millions because of India’s refusal to play cricket with its archrival. “I am not an accountant,” he said.