Tour to go ahead

The Indian government, severely criticised by the opposition for supposedly linking the cricket tour of Pakistan to the forthcoming elections, has given a tentative go-ahead for the series. The initiative was taken by Atal Behari Vajpayee, India's Prime Minister, and Yashwant Sinha, the External Affairs minister, said as much in New Delhi this morning, leaving the BCCI with the onerous task of convincing several reluctant players to tour.

Sinha announced that the tour would proceed as scheduled after a meeting at the Prime Minister's residence. According to news reports, Vajpayee was especially keen that uncertainty over the tour shouldn't derail the peace process. The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are meeting on Monday, and cricket will certainly figure prominently on the agenda.

A three-man BCCI delegation, which returns from Pakistan on Monday, will brief both the board and the government about the security issues, and it will then be left to the BCCI to work out the modalities of the tour.

Sami-ul-Hasan, the PCB media manager, said the board viewed it as a step forward, and that the controversy was needless.

"We can look forward to a thrilling series and view the Indian initiative as a very positive step," Hasan said. "There is generally relief, more so because the whole controversy was quite unnecessary to begin with. We can now concentrate on proceeding with the organizational aspects of the tour."

Earlier, it had been rumoured that the series would be postponed until after the general elections in April-May. With that in mind, reports had suggested that the Board of Control for Cricket in India has asked the government to arrange a bail-out clause which would help them to escape sanctions from the International Cricket Council.

According to a report in the Times of India, Jagmohan Dalmiya had informed the government of the board's willingness to put the tour off to a later date. This information was reportedly conveyed through Pramod Mahajan, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who in turn has asked the External Affairs ministry to contact their Pakistani counterparts with a view to asking the Pakistan Cricket Board to acquiesce to India's request for a postponement.

Dalmiya's earlier suggestion that the Test matches be played, and that only the one-day internationals be postponed to a later date, didn't find favour with the government. Under ICC rules, the BCCI could be fined up to $2 m for failing to honour their commitments. The PCB has already ruled out any chance of the matches taking place at a neutral venue.

No reasons have yet been given for the sudden volte face, which will be greeted with delight by many fans on both sides of the border. The chairman of the PCB, for one, was pleased.

"It is a positive announcement," Shaharyar Khan said. "We were never in doubt about India's tour."