Popularity of Indian cricketers up in Pakistan

MUMBAI: A top Pakistani security official, who travelled with the Indian team for 45 days, says the enthusiasm for the cricket series was not the same as last time but the popularity of the Indian team had certainly gone up among ordinary Pakistanis.

"The popularity of the Indian cricketers surely went up compared to the Indian team's tour of Pakistan in 2004, the first full-fledged one after almost 15 years," Sohail Khan, a senior superintendent of police with Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, said in Karachi before the team's departure for Mumbai.

Khan, who had come to see off the Indian team at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi on Monday, travelled to the seven cities visited by the team - Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Multan, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

Khan is a competent authority to comment as he had also travelled with the team during their 38-day tour of Pakistan in March-April 2004, and closely co-ordinated the security arrangements for both series.

"It was evident that their popularity has risen. People sought more autographs and they had become household names and they were talked about by many more people," said the Lahore-based Khan, a cousin of the legendary Imran Khan.


"However, the enthusiasm of the people for an India-Pakistan series has gone down a bit compared to the 2004 series."

This could be due to the fact that India and Pakistan have now played three series within two years, two in Pakistan and one in India. Some experts said that it was an overdose of the premium series and it should be spaced out more.

Khan was satisfied that the series passed off peacefully without any major incident, especially considering the nationwide protests over the publications of cartoons related to the Prophet Mohammed.

"Yes, the series passed of without a major incident, and the protests had no effect on the security of the team as such," he said, looking a bit tired after the hectic travelling and liasing with the local and other security agencies at all seven cities.


There was one small incident when someone from the crowd threw a small nut that hit Irfan Pathan's temple during the first one-day international at the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshwar.

But Khan laughed the incident off, saying that the player did not get hurt.

It was also during this match that a spectator broke the security cordon and ran to the pitch to shake hands with Sachin Tendulkar after he scored a century.

Earlier, during the team's stay in the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore, a Lahore police personnel tried to get an autograph from Tendulkar for one of his friends and was suspended for "dereliction of duty".

Apart from this incident, the players were happy with the tight security arrangements made for the high profile series.

Source: Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1422389,curpg.cms