PCB chief’s letter eases up Pakistani team travel problems
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

NEW DELHI (India): A letter from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made Pakistan team’s journey out of the hill resort of Dharamshala a comfortable one right upto to Chandigarh for the first Test match.

It was confirmed on Saturday that the Pakistan squad will now leave for Chandigarh in one batch in a small Dornier aircraft and on a 16-seater helicopter.

Sources in the Pakistan team confirmed on Saturday that PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan had written to the BCCI, drawing their attention to the logistical problems faced by the visitors in reaching Dharamshala for the three-day tour opener that has been ruined by bad weather.

"Shaharyar Khan promptly sent a letter to the Indians reminding them that they should take every possible step to make the tour a logistically comfortable one for the Pakistan team. He wrote the letter after manager Saleem Altaf informed him about the problems faced in reaching Dharamshala from Delhi," the source said.

The Pakistan squad reached Dharamshala in two batches as the Kangra Airport in the Himachal Pradesh hill station is not big enough for a boeing plane to land there.

The source said that the Pakistan players were not happy when one batch reached Dharamshala on March 2 at 9.00am and the second one at 2.00pm as the pilot had to make two journeys to accommodate all the players and officials. The Pakistan squad includes 16 players and seven officials.

The source said after Shaharyar’s letter and the media’s focus on the logistical problems faced by the visiting team, the state government also got into the act and Anuraj Thakur, the President of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), managed to convince the state to provide the helicopter for the Pakistan team.

"There was a lot of pressure on the state government and the local cricket association because of the adverse publicity they got for the match and the fact that the players and Shaharyar were not happy. After this matters were sorted out," the source added.

He said although the ground in Dharamshala was well equipped to even host a Test match and had good facilities, the time was not right for the BCCI to schedule the match in the hill resort.

"The bad weather has been a big problem and the team has to travel by road for 45 minutes from its hotel to the ground," the source added.

Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly also wrote in a column on Saturday that he was surprised Pakistan had agreed to play the match in Dharamshala.

"I have been quite surprised by the fact that Pakistan agreed to play their only three-day warm up game in Dharamshala. I am surprised because north India usually experiences rain at this time of the year and if the weather does intervene, Pakistan will not get the kind of practice they would have wanted before the Test in Mohali," Ganguly wrote.

But the team source said that when the PCB General Manager Cricket Operations Zakir Khan and security officer Sohail Khan visited India to inspect the venues in January they could not travel to Dharamshala because of bad weather.

"It is unlikely they would have agreed to play at this venue if they had gone to Dharamshala," the source said.●