November 20, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 09, 1428

NEW DELHI, Nov 19: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) surely needs to learn a lot from their Pakistani counterparts when it comes to matters of protocol. This became evident on Monday when batsman Faisal Iqbal, leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and fast bowler Mohammad Sami arrived here to join the Pakistan Test squad after a 90-minute journey from Karachi. To their amazement, not a single BCCI representative turned up to welcome them at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and for a while it appeared that the Pakistani trio would have to face the embarrassment of immigration formalities like any of the ordinary passengers.

Luckily, however, Salahuddin Ahmed, the chairman of selectors who also arrived from the same flight, used his contacts and saved the players from prolonged wait at the immigration counter.

Unlike Faisal and Sami, Kaneria who has family roots in the western Indian state of Gujarat, was accompanied by his wife and three-year-old daughter Pareesa.

Salahuddin, who is known as Sallu, also used his connections to get a group of Pakistani journalists check out through the special diplomatic counter that is normally used by the VIPs. The three cricketers and the journalists eventually managed to pass the immigration without much delay.

But the question that perturbed the cricketers and the journalists was that why the BCCI or even a powerful local administration such as the influential Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) didn’t make appropriate arrangements to receive them from Pakistan.

In sharp contrast, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s hospitality towards any foreign cricketing dignitary is simply magnificent on such occasions. Not only the cricketers, other visiting officials (like the umpires, the match referees and representatives of cricket boards) are not only warmly welcomed in Pakistan, but also given virtually the same treatment as those befitting all VIPs.

Since the historic ground-breaking in the spring of 2004, the Indian teams and their officials have always been treated like royalty.

For years the PCB has religiously made special arrangements to cater to the needs of all cricket-related visitors by appointing liaison officers who travel with the teams throughout their stay in the country.

Usually, the liaison officers coordinate with city-based officials to make sure the stay of the visiting dignitaries is as smooth as possible from the moment they arrive at their destination.

One sincerely hopes that it was a temporary lapse on part of the BCCI which raised man a eyebrow on Monday. One never really gets to know how the Pakistani players went to the team’s hotel after they checked out of the airport.