(From Reuters)
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has cleared the national cricket team to travel to India for the World Twenty20, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Friday.
“The interior minister has given permission to send the Pakistan cricket team to play the Twenty20 on the basis of solid assurances received from chief minister of West Bengal and the… union home secretary and the home minister (in India),” PCB executive committee chairman Najam Sethi told reporters.
Earlier in the day, India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Pakistan need not worry about the safety of their cricket teams in the ongoing World Twenty20,
The March 19 clash between the neighbours has already been shifted to Kolkata following Pakistan’s security concerns over the original venue, Dharamsala.
Pakistan said on Thursday its men’s and women’s cricket teams would travel to India only after New Delhi gave a public guarantee of the safety of its players.
“Why only Pakistan? Whoever comes here, India provides them security. There is no reason to be worried about security here,” Singh told reporters.
On Thursday, junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju promised foolproof security to Pakistan, a country shunned by top teams since a 2009 attack on a bus carrying a visiting Sri Lanka team near Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium. Read More