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Tuesday, Mar 15, 2005

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National

Cricket may offer the pitch for a meeting

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14. It's become a question of marrying the schedules of a President and a Prime Minister. With the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, saying "yes" to visiting India to watch cricket, efforts are on to ensure that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh's schedule and that of the General tally.

All kinds of dates and venues are floating around, but a senior Pakistani High Commission official insisted this evening that no decision had been taken about when and where the General will be going to watch cricket.

However, one thing is clear — the Prime Minister will be playing host to the President — just as then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi played host to the then Pakistani President, Zia-ul-Haq, during the Jaipur Test in February 1987. In fact, the late Rajiv Gandhi had received Gen. Zia at the airport.

Kolkata, obviously, is now out as a venue. The focus has shifted to the one-day game at Kochi (April 2) and the Bangalore Test (March 24-28). The External Affairs Ministry is also saying that no decision has been taken about the General's travel plans.

The Pakistani official said they were keen to ensure that dates and a venue were decided upon so that the necessary arrangements could be made for the visit by Gen. Musharraf.

There's little doubt that tight security arrangements will be called for if both the leaders happen to watch a match together. Even in the midst of "cricket diplomacy" more serious issues can crop up for discussion.

With the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit having been postponed twice, Dr. Singh and Gen. Musharraf have, so far, had only one occasion to meet so far — on the sidelines of the United Nations' General Assembly in New York in September 2004.

Cricket, it would appear, is poised to give them a chance to meet again — albeit in less formal environs.

B. Muralidhar Reddy reports from Islamabad:

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told the weekly news conference today that the schedule for the visit of Gen. Musharraf was still being worked out.

"We are looking at the schedule of President for his visit to India. We do not have the dates at the moment," he said.

About the possibility of a meeting between Dr. Singh and Gen. Musharraf during the visit, he said Pakistan's "understanding" was that the Indian Prime Minister would be hosting the visit of the President and the two were expected to make use of it to hold talks.

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