‘India to tour Pakistan now from Jan 6’
From Zeeshan Mirza

KARACHI—Indian cricketers will be landing in Pakistan now on January 6 according to revised itinerary, Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Sheharyar M. Khan said Monday.
“After postponement of Asia Cup, Indian tour got a breathing space and they will now tour Pakistan from January 6 to February 20”, he told reporters shortly after his return from Mumbai where he had a fruitful meetings with newly elected members of Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan including new Chief Sharad Pawar.
He said BCCI have in principals agreed to play both Test and One-day Internationals (ODI) but the tour programme however it will be subject to clearance from Indian Government.
According to new itinerary prepared Indians will start with 3-day tour opener at Lahore from January 8 to 10 while the opening Test will be held at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore (January 14-18), second Test at Iqbal Stadium Faisalabad (January 22-26) and third Test at National Stadium Karachi (January 30 to February 3).
He said schedule for the five ODIs yet to finalize because of Muharram and Ashura, but he added that one-day series will be played between February 6 to 20 and these ODIs will be played in Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan and Karachi.
He said matches in Peshawar and Multan will be day affairs while matches in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi wil be day/night.
He said day/night matches will start at 11.30 A.M.
This, Sheharyar said was due to keep the dew factors in morning and in evening and give playing teams equal chances.
He described his meetings with new body very fruitful, positive and responsive and said he discussed other issues including of organizing Test and ODI matches after every two years instead of one year.
“Two boards want to make Indo-Pak matches an icon series and generate more interest,” he said. PCB Chief said that will help in creating more interest in series and more financial attraction for the sponsors.
“Pakistan and Indians played 14 times at various venues during 2005 which was too much for players”, he maintained.
He said International Cricket Council (ICC) also trying to increase Future Tour Programmes from four year cycle to six year cycle. This, he said to keep players fresh and save from injuries for playing too long. Regarding his departure on the eve of Pakistan’s win, he said it was an important visit but his heart with Pakistan team and players.
He said after awarding Central Contracts to players, they are already getting additional benefits like incentives for five wickets, for centuries and win bonus and series bonus so PCB had no plan for additional incentives for series win against England.
However, he said the victories against England was heartening and heart warming and great gift to the nation.
However, apart from those two moments both players batted with relative ease during a morning session that has suffered from a lack of intensity. Pakistan know their main objective, a series win, has been achieved while England are just going about a professional job of trying to bat out the day.
Collingwood brought up his second fifty of the match from 121 balls and he was immediately into his stride with a forcing square drive if the first over. Bell played within himself, adding just six to his total during the first hour. However, as lunch approached, he latched onto a few short balls from the pacemen, as the old ball ballooned off the pitch, and became England’s leading run scorer in the series. For Collingwood this innings is rapidly turning into a second chance for a first Test ton following his near-miss on the second day.
Inzamam-ul-Haq tried all his options but there is very little help from the benign surface and the bowlers didn’t quite hit their straps. Kaneria was too quick to slot into a defensive line around the wicket despite clearly not being as comfortable with that method of attack. Since he was warned for his follow-through, from over the wicket, by Darrell Hair in Faisalabad, he has lost some confidence and his effectiveness has diminished. Rana Naved-ul-Hasan bowled an impressive spell with the old ball, producing the one delivery that moved of the straight all session when he beat Bell neck and crop. Shoaib Akhtar then fired a warning to England about what is to come, with the new ball during the afternoon, by cracking Collingwood on the arm and Bell on the gloves in the last over before lunch.
but is was impressive turn around after the lunch that stunned Engalnd, and the Ashes winners truned into crashers in no time.
Mohammad Yousaf was declared man of the match while Inzamam ul Haq, the skipper of Pakistan side was named man of the series for his brilliant batting performace through out the test series. —Agencies