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Smiling rival leaders team up for Indo-Pak cricket passions
Musharraf, who arrived in India on Saturday with a message of peace, joined Singh and India's ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi in a bullet-proof glass enclosure to catch the opening overs of the last of six one-day matches. Thousands of spectators crammed into New Delhi's Ferozeshah Kotla grounds roared as a smiling Musharraf offered a salute. Singh, wearing a traditional long cotton shirt and pyjamas, also greeted the crowds waving both Indian and the Pakistani flags. Pakistani fans secured 2,000 tickets for the unfinished stadium, packed to its reduced 30,000 capacity for security reasons. The leaders, who had shaken hands with the players on the pitch after Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat, enjoyed tea and biscuits in air-conditioned comfort while spectators felt the heat as temperatures rose to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). "Today's match is a symbol of the friendship between our two countries and that's why we are carrying both the flags," New Delhi college student Rameshwari Singh told reporters outside the stadium. Musharraf, who exchanged pleasantries with other invited VIPs behind the smoked glass, follows in the footsteps of late president Zia ul Haq who launched cricket diplomacy by attending a Test match in the northern Indian city of Jaipur in 1987. Singh's spokesman Sanjaya Baru said the Pakistani president took the opportunity to offer a crash course on the finer points of the game.
"The overall atmosphere was warm and cordial," he said noting Musharraf described Pakistan's lofty boundary shots as "very interesting." "The match was in a very interesting stage ... It is difficult to leave the ground at such exciting moments," Musharraf later told reporters. Despite the friendly atmosphere, thousands of troops were protecting the fortified stadium. Helicopter gunships clattered overhead while police and paramilitary troops formed a three-tiered security cordon around the stadium. Snipers manned adjacent buildings, anti-aircraft batteries were deployed and all surrounding roads closed to traffic. Two helicopters were on standby outside to evacuate the leaders in the event of trouble. Before arriving at the stadium, Musharraf maintained a diplomatic line by not predicting the result of a match which India must win to level the series. "I don't know," he said at his hotel. "In a game there is a result. You don't get a result by seeing a match," said Musharraf, clad in a grey suit.
The general's visit is the first since 2001 when he attended a summit with then Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee that collapsed over the issue of Kashmir, the Himalayan state held in parts and claimed in full by both India and Pakistan. Musharraf set the latest visit in motion himself by declaring last month that he would like to see a game during the tour. India quickly sent an invite and the sub-continent's favourite game had again helped break the ice between the nuclear-armed neighbours. The Pakistani president later held formal talks with Singh and was also due to meet other Indian leaders as well as separatist groups from Indian-administered Kashmir. Musharraf in an overnight statement urged both India and Pakistan to seize
the day and resolve their decades-old dispute over Kashmir.
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