The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Teams arrive in Kochi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 05, 2006

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Teams arrive in Kochi

Kochi: Cricket fever has gripped the city with the arrival of the Indian and England cricket teams on Tuesday morning for the fourth one-dayer to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.

The teams arrived here by a chartered GoAir flight from Goa that landed at the nearby Nedumbassery airport. Organisers garlanded the players on their arrival and sandalwood paste was applied on their foreheads.

Karnataka batsman Robin Uthappa, who has been included in the team, arrived directly from Bangalore.

Later at the Taj Malabar in the Willington Island where the teams are staying, they were received with `thalappoli.' Both teams enjoyed the welcome, said a tournament committee official.

People, mostly youngsters, had thronged the airport to see their cricketing heroes. There were loud cheers when local boy S. Sreesanth, only the second cricketer from Kerala to play for the country after Tinu Yohannan, emerged.

The teams were received by the Kerala Cricket Association president, S.K. Nair, the KCA secretary, T.C. Mathew, and other officer-bearers.

Police had made tight security arrangements both at the airport and at the hotel, where both the teams are staying.

Apparently tired of the hot and humid conditions at Goa during the third one-dayer on Monday, the teams preferred to remain indoors. However, later in the evening middle order batsman Mohammed Kaif and Venugopala Rao came to the ground and practised for an hour. — PTI

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