Delhi One-Dayer back on track by AFP

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Event:

Pakistan in India 2004/05

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DateLine: 1st April 2005

 

The cricket match between India and Pakistan which Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was due to attend will be held as scheduled in New Delhi on April 17, officials said.

 

"There is no problem. The match will go ahead at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi as planned," cricket board vice-president Rajiv Shukla said on Friday.

 

"There are no obstacles now."

 

Doubts arose about the match, the sixth and final one-dayer on Pakistan's current Indian tour, on Thursday when local cricket officials refused to host the game saying security and municipal requirements were too stringent.

 

Caught in a bind with barely 16 days before Musharraf is due to visit, the Indian government closed ranks and moved to ensure the match was held in New Delhi.

 

"Everyone has begun to co-operate now. I am getting positive signals from the authorities that we will host the match," Arun Jaitley, president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, told reporters.

 

It was Musharraf's high-profile visit on an invitation from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the DDCA was banking on after municipal authorities refused permission to stage the match at a stadium still under construction.

 

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 DDCA reduced the capacity to 30,000 for the match, saying spectators would be allowed to occupy only the lower half of the two-tiered galleries, but municipal authorities refused to budge.

 

"Public safety has to be the top priority," Municipal Corporation of Delhi chairmam Rakesh Mehta said last week.

 

The DDCA will still have to work on the Kotla's newly-laid wicket which remains unsuitable to hold international matches.

 

When it was tested in early-March during a friendly match between lawyers, the bounce was so low that organisers hurriedly laid out matting so that the game could be played.

 

India invited Musharraf for one of the matches on Pakistan's first full tour of India in six years after he himself publicly announced his desire to watch cricket in India.

(Article: Copyright © 2005 AFP)