November 29, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1428

KOLKATA, Nov 28: The current India-Pakistan Test series is clearly missing the hype and excitement that had become a hallmark of the previous field battles between the two Asian cricket rivals.

One genuine reason for this lack of interest — with Kolkata drawing lukewarm response from its citizens with just around one-third of the tickets sold by Wednesday afternoon — is the frequency of contests held between Pakistan and India in recent years.

Starting with the unforgettable ice-breaking series in the spring of 2004 in Pakistan, the traditional opponents, whose rivalry is considered to be more intense and passionate than that of the Ashes opponents — Australia and England — have crossed borders four times in as many years.

In the period mentioned above, Pakistan and India have met in 21 One-day Internationals and next month’s Bangalore Test would be the 12th clash in the longer version of the game.

If the Delhi Test attracted a fair crowd with over 40,000 turning on the fourth day at the refurbished Feroz Shah Kotla that now has an increased capacity, on Tuesday, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) reported ticket sale of Rs600000 (taking the overall sale to Rs6000000), a figure that left the CAB officials fearing a half-empty Eden Gardens which can take in over 90,000 spectators at a time.