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| 24 January 2005 | Monday | 13 Zilhaj 1425 |
Pakistan tour unaffected by threats, says PCB chief
KARACHI, Jan 23: Threats from radical Hindu groups to disrupt Pakistan's Test series in India next month will not derail the tour, Pakistan's top cricket official said on Sunday.
Activists of the radical Hindu party, Shiv Sena, have said they would attempt to disrupt the one-day match in Delhi in protest at Pakistan touring India for a full Test series for the first time since early 1999.
"We have full confidence in the Indian board to look after the security and other arrangements for our team. We are not going to be affected by such threats," said Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
On the 1999 tour, Shiv Sena activists dug up a pitch at the Feroze Shah Kotla ground in Delhi in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent a test match taking place. "We will not allow the one day cricket match in Delhi at any cost," said Shiv Sena's local unit president Jai Bhagwan Goyal was quoted as saying by the Indian Express on Friday.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday announced Mohali, Ahmedabad and Bangalore as the Test venues and Cochin, Vishakapatnam, Delhi, Kanpur and Jamshedpur as the one-day venues for the Feb 25-April 9 tour.
Ahmedabad, the major city in Gujarat, is controversial as the western state was rocked by India's worst communal riots for a decade in 2002. Khan said the board would give its response on the proposed venues, which India had announced as provisional, after a visit of a Pakistani security team there from Jan 24 to 29.
"These are proposed venues and there is always a process of dialogue between countries," he said. "When India visited Pakistan we took everything into consideration before finalising the venues." -Reuters
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