India's top court paves way for Delhi encounter by AFP

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Ground:	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Event:	Pakistan in India 2004/05

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DateLine: 11th April 2005

 

India's Supreme Court gave the final green light for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to engage in cricket diplomacy when it approved the staging of a one-day match at an unfinished stadium.

 

The court rejected an appeal by the Society for Safe Structures, a non-governmental agency, to cancel the sixth one-dayer between India and Pakistan on April 17 because the incomplete Ferozeshah Kotla stadium in the Indian capital was unsafe for spectators.

 

New Delhi's municipal agencies and the host Delhi and District Cricket Association told the court they would take responsibility for the safety of the match, which Musharraf is due to attend, the Press Trust of India reported on Monday.

 

"Our engineers have examined in the minutest details the safety proof of the structure and are sure that it was safe for holding the match," Municipal Corporation of Delhi lawyers told the court.

 

"We stand responsible to the court and to the country for the safety of the stadium."

 

The historic Kotla, one of the oldest Test venues in India, was razed to the ground two years ago to build a state-of-the-art 50,000-capacity stadium, but delays in construction and laying a new pitch frustrated officials.

 

The municipal corporation had initially refused permission to hold the match, saying the incomplete stadium could prove a safety hazard, but later relented after the organisers reduced the match capacity to 30,000 and said spectators would occupy only the lower half of the two-tiered galleries.

 

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invited Musharraf to attend one of the matches in Pakistan's ongoing first full tour of India in six years after the Pakistani president himself publicly said he would like to watch a game.

 

New Delhi was chosen as the venue for the rare visit due to the better security and hotel facilities in the Indian capital.

 

Musharraf last visited India in 2001 for a failed summit with then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Taj Mahal town of Agra.

 

Singh and Musharraf are expected to meet to push ahead with a peace process between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

(Article: Copyright © 2005 AFP)