November 02, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 20, 1428

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Pakistan cricket coach Geoff Lawson said on Thursday he hoped the series against rivals India starting next week would be played without the acrimony that marred the home team’s recent one-dayers against Australia.

Pakistan’s team landed in Delhi on Thursday for the fourth bilateral series between the rival countries in the last four years amid tight security.

Skipper Shoaib Malik and Lawson said they were ready for the usual tension and wanted to avenge the Twenty20 World Cup loss.

“I think it is bigger than the Ashes,” Lawson told a news conference, referring to the renowned Test series between England and Australia. “It is a national rivalry and a little more than a cricket game.

“We tied a Twenty20 (league) game and lost in the final,” he said. “We’ve got a few scores to settle.”

The clash follows India’s 4-2 defeat by Australia in their one-day series last month which was marred by verbal clashes between rival players on and off the pitch and racial taunts from the stands aimed at Andrew Symonds.

Lawson hoped it would be as incident-free as the home series against South Africa which ended on Monday with the visitors clinching the test and one-day series.

“We just played a series against South Africa -- very hard, tough, non-compromising cricket,” he said. “But there was not one bad word said between the teams.

“The series was played in a very fine spirit, as cricket should be. I hope this series is played in exactly the same style.

“We’ve got a captain who likes his players to behave properly on the field,” he said. “I’m pretty sure MS Dhoni likes his players to do the same.”

Pakistan will open the tour with a one-day practice match against a Delhi XI on Friday. The Delhi team will be led by Test opener Gautam Gambhir, but will miss star batsman Virender Sehwag, whose father died this week.

The Delhi XI will also be without the injured pace pair of Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma. Nehra has pulled out of the match due to an ankle problem, while Sharma is recuperating from a shoulder injury.

Meanwhile, the Indian cricket board said it would ask its government to loosen a restriction that will see just 250 tickets per match sold to Pakistani fans.

Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said Thursday that the allocation was too small and that the board would ask for more tickets for travelling Pakistani fans. “Our president will also meet with the (Indian) foreign minister,” Shah said.

During the previous three tours – since resumption of cricket ties between the two countries after a long interlude – thousands of fans were allowed to travel to the neighbouring nation and watch the fiercely contested cricket matches between long-time rivals.—Agencies