The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Revised itinerary for India's tour

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Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

Revised itinerary for India's tour

Karachi: The minor security irritants concerning India's tour of Pakistan were finally ironed out on Monday with the Pakistan Cricket Board announcing fresh dates for the five one-dayers in its final itinerary.

The PCB was forced to readjust the dates of all the one-dayers on account of Moharram.

The Indian team will arrive in Lahore on January 5 and will play the three Tests as scheduled in Lahore (Jan 13-17), Faisalabad (Jan 21-25) and Karachi from January 29 to February 2.

However, the one-day series will start from Peshawar where the first game will be played on February 6.

Rawalpindi will host the second game on February 11 and the third will be played at Lahore on February 13. The fourth match will be at Multan on February 16, while the series ends in Karachi on February 19.

The one-day series was originally proposed to start in Rawalpindi on February 8, but taking into consideration the holy month of Moharram, in which processions are taken out, the PCB, in consultation with the Interior Ministry, made the adjustments.

Security cover

"There are minimum adjustments and they have been made so that the respective host cities can provide as much security cover to the citizens during the Moharam processions as much as to the two teams.

Naturally, Moharram is a holy month and its sanctity has to be maintained," PCB director (board operations) Abbas Zaidi said.

Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India agreed to a change in the schedule of one-day internationals as suggested by the PCB.

The itinerary:

Jan 5: Arrival in Lahore; Jan 7-9: Three-dayer at Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore; Jan 13-17: First Test, Lahore; Jan 21-25: Second Test, Faisalabad; Jan 29-Feb 2: Third Test, Karachi; Feb 6: First ODI at Peshawar; Feb 11: Second ODI at Rawalpindi; Feb 13: Third ODI at Lahore; Feb 16: Fourth ODI at Multan; Feb 19: Fifth ODI at Karachi. — PTI