Mum is the word for Pakistani players

Chandigarh, Oct 21 : Pakistani cricket players who have arrived here for the ICC Champions Trophy at Mohali have been told not to open their mouth.

Media personnel are a big no-no for the players, thanks to the Oval test, captaincy issue and the doping controversies involving Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif.

All the talking has been left to coach Bob Woolmer. For the customary media interaction though, captain Younis Khan - who himself has been in the centre of a captaincy row - will speak.

The team management feels that Pakistan players could be better off by keeping away from anything verbal and instead let their actions on the field do the talking.

Pakistan faces New Zealand at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium at Mohali Oct 25 followed by an encounter against South Africa Oct 27 at the same venue.

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Pak team calls on the ‘Don’

It was an appointment that the entire Pakistan team wanted to keep Friday night. The team went to the Fun Republic multiplex here to view the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer movie.

The presence of the entire Pakistan team was a pleasant surprise for filmgoers. But tight security ensured that no fan could get anywhere near the Pakistanis. The players were seated in the business-class seats. Accompanying bowling coach Waqar Younis was his wife.

The team seemed relaxed. Some of them could be heard commenting that the earlier ‘Don’ - featuring Amitabh Bachchan - was a better fare.

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Stadium’s drought ends

The picturesque Sector 16 cricket stadium here definitely had a change of fortune.

The ground where the likes of Kapil Dev, Yashpal Sharma, Chetan Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and others have trained and played had fallen on bad days for over a decade since 1994 after the PCA stadium came up at Mohali.

Since then, international matches have dried up for this stadium. But things changed in the last one-month itself.

Three international teams have either played here or practiced. These include Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Four more matches of the Champions Trophy are scheduled at the stadium between Oct 25 and Nov 1.

The teams scheduled to play at Mohali include South Africa, New Zealand, India, Australia and Pakistan besides whichever teams qualify for the first semi-final to be played Nov 1.

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