KOLKATA, Nov 10: Pakistan's cricketers arrived in India on Wednesday for their first visit in more than five years for a ground-breaking one-day international with political overtones.

The two teams will meet on Saturday at Calcutta's Eden Gardens in front of a capacity crowd of 120,000 to celebrate the Indian cricket board's 75th anniversary.

The last Test there between the teams, in 1999, was hit by crowd trouble after India's leading batsman Sachin Tendulkar became entangled with fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar and was run out in a freak incident by a direct hit from the boundary.

Pakistan sealed victory on the last day after police had to empty the stadium to prevent further crowd problems.

Several fans lined up at Calcutta's Netaji Subhash International airport on Wednesday to greet the Pakistan team, who are led by captain Inzamam-ul-Haq.

All they got, though, was a glimpse of the team bus before it left for the city amidst heavy security.

In 2000, the Indian government banned all home and away cricket against Pakistan due to political tensions.

But both sides are weary of the dispute, which almost flared into another war in 1999 and in 2002, and tentative peace discussions have been underway since last year.

India travelled to Pakistan earlier this year for a full series for the first time since 1989-90.

The tour was a success in diplomatic and financial terms and since then peace talks have been held between the two governments.

India won the tests 2-1 and one-dayers 3-2 but have since lost three one-day internationals to Pakistan in Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and England.

Pakistan are scheduled to travel to India for a full test series in February next year.-Reuters