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Kalam, Vajpayee congratulate Indian team on win

          New Delhi: President APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have congratulated the Indian cricket team for their 40-run win over Pakistan in the fifth and final one-day international played at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday night. Commenting on the 3-2 series win, both Kalam and Vajpayee said that the Indian team had not only won a historic series for the first time in Pakistan, but also won the hearts of the people in the subcontinent. "When 11 players play together, victory is certain," Vajpayee was reported as having said in his message to Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and his team.

         Meanwhile, people across India were reported to be still in a celebratory mood after Wednesday night's victory. Radio reports on Thursday morning said that in places like Mumbai and Chennai, the people were on their mobile phones, sending messages of congratulations and cheers to their near and dear ones. In other parts, people came out on to the streets to burst firecrackers and exchange embraces over the landmark victory, the first by an Indian team in Pakistan since cricket was first played between the two countries in the 1950s.

Multan to have result oriented track (Go To Top)

          Lahore: The wicket at Multan, the venue of the first Test between India and Pakistan starting March 28, is sporting and seam bowlers will get plenty of help from it, said the News on Thursday. Quoting the pitch curators Shahid Burki and Andy Atkinson, the paper said that they had been asked to prepare a result-oriented pitch for the Test. That's the reason, said the paper, why the Pakistani selectors were looking at including Iftikhar in the squad with Kaneria and Saqlain Mushtaq the two main spin bowlers.

          Both the teams are likely to reach Multan on Thursday evening by the same flight, the report added. The Pakistani Test squad is likely to be announced this evening. "We will be meeting tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to finalise the Test squad and will consult the captain and coach before taking a decision," team selector Wasim Bari was quoted as saying on Wednesday. According to him, Danish Kaneria would be included in the Test squad to bolster the spin attack and a pacer added as back-up support for Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami and Shabbir Ahmed. But Bari did not disclose who would be dropped.

Afridi, Younis dropped from Test squad (Go To Top)

          Lahore: Opener Shahid Afridi and middle-order batsman Younis Khan were on Thursday dropped from the Pakistani squad for the three-Test series against India. Pakistan recalled leg-spinner Danish Kaneria for the series, starting in Multan on March 28. Chief Selector Wasim Bari announced the 16-member squad. Off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq, who was part of the 15-member one- day squad but did not play in any of the five ODIs was retained in the team. Besides Afridi and Younis Khan, Rana-Naveed-ul Hasan was also given the axe in favour of specialist bowlers Kaneria and Umar Gul and middle-order batsmen Misbah-ul-Haq and Asim Kamal.