The Hindu : Kalmadi hopeful of Indian tour to Pak next year

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 31, 2002

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Kalmadi hopeful of Indian tour to Pak next year

Islamabad March 30. The stalled cricket relations between archrivals India and Pakistan looked all set to get going with the visiting Indian Olympic Association President saying he was confident the Indian cricket team would tour here in April next year.

``I am confident that Indian team will undertake the cricket tour of Pakistan in April next year which is already part of the cricket calendar of both the countries,'' Kalmadi told PTI while winding up his two-day tour here on Saturday.

The IOA chief also said the officials of the two countries have agreed to have bilateral annual fixtures of different games.

Kalmadi, who headed a three-member Indian sports official delegation to attend the Executive Committee meeting of South Asian Sports Federation (SASF) to fix new dates for the twice postponed SAF Games, said his visit was aimed at bringing an all-round improvement in sports ties between the two countries.

``In today's meeting I proposed that there should be tournaments in different disciplines every year between SAARC countries and especially between India and Pakistan.

``Basically I am here to improve the sports relations between India and Pakistan. Due to strained political situation between India and Pakistan, the sports ties between the two countries were badly affected,'' he said.

Kalmadi said his proposal was readily accepted at the SASF meeting as well during his separate discussions with Pakistan Olympic Association officials.

``By playing with each other more, including cricket, the two countries stand to gain in experience to face the international competition.

``We have the best batsmen, they have the best fast bowlers and it would help the cricketers gain a lot of experience by playing each other,'' Kalmadi said.

The neighbours have not played each other since they met in an Asia Cup match in Bangladesh in June 2000 and if India does undertake its tour in April-May next year it will be its first full Test tour since 1989-90.

Kalmadi felt sports and politics should not be inter-mixed, an opinion also voiced often by Pakistan' sport officials. ``We feel that sports should not be part of politics.

``Through sports even politics could get better... Whenever there is deterioration in Indo-Pak relations, it should not affect sporting relations,'' he said.

Referring to his meeting with Gen Tauqir Zia, Kalmadi said, ``I met PCB Chief even though there was no mandate for me from the government to improve cricket relations, I wanted to use my office as President of the Indian Olympic Association to build bridges between India and Pakistan in sports arena. This included cricket as it is part of the Commonwealth Games and is being made part of the Asian Games too''.

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