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LAHORE, April 5: The friendly atmosphere, a feature of the current series so far, confounded the apprehensions of ICC's chief match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, about incidents of sledging on the opening day of the second Test at the Qadhafi Stadium on Monday.
Madugalle, the former Sri Lankan captain, in his official pre-Test meeting on Sunday with both captains (Inzamamul Haq and Rahul Dravid) had expressed fear of sledging in the second Test and advised them to warn their players, specially the fast bowlers to avoid it.
Madugalle wasof the view that as a bouncy track was being prepared for the Test and the pacers could get carried away after claiming a wicket or otherwise. Eleven wickets fell on the first day of the Test but not a single case of sledging was reported to Madugalle by umpires Steve Bucknor and Simon Taufel. That showed how the players of both teams were playing cricket with a positive frame of mind.
The Pakistan, who bowled out India in 64.1 overs, were three overs behind in the over-rate but the Indians bowled according to the required ratio. Meanwhile, the first day drew a poor public response. In the morning, there were only about 400 spectators, mostly from India.
However, attendance increased to some extent in the General Enclosures after the lunch interval. But the overall attendance could not cross more than 1,000 in a stadium with a capacity of 23,000.
Reuters adds: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has cut ticket prices in a bid to boost the number of spectators over the next few days. "We'll have to take some radical steps," Ramiz Raja, chief executive of the PCB, said.
"We've sent special ticket packages to schools and colleges to fill up the stands. We've slashed the ticket rates by 50 percent and other such measures are in the pipeline," he said. Ramiz said the main reason for the lack of crowds was that the one-day series was held before the Tests.
