Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday reminded of 'cricket diplomacy' by extending invitation to President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch cricket world cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan at Mohali on March 30.
Earlier, two military dictators had been to India to watch cricket matches and to mend fences with India. In 1987, General Zia-ul-Haq had accepted the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's invitation to Jaipur and General Prevez Musharraf (Retd) had watched a match at Dehi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005. Foreign Office Spokesperson Tehmina Janjua confirmed that an invitation had been received by the Foreign Office.
"Invitations for President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani from the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to watch the World Cup semi-final match to be held at Mohali on 30th March have been received this evening," said a statement issued by the Foreign Office. "It gives me great pleasure to invite you to visit Mohali and join me and the millions of fans from our two countries to watch the match," said the Indian premier in his letter. "There is huge excitement ... we are looking forward to a great game of cricket that will be a victory for sport," the letter added.
The invitation is considered as the first major step towards a major bilateral event between the two sides after their relations hit the lowest ebb in the aftermath of Mumbai terror attack also known as 26/11. The two countries have recently unveiled a three-tier roadmap for talks starting at officials' level leading up to the foreign ministers' parleys in Delhi in July. They decided to intensify contacts and a meeting between home secretaries of both the countries is scheduled for March 26-28 in Dehli. The interior secretaries meeting would be followed by commerce secretaries' meeting next month in Islamabad
Prime Minister Gilani while meeting an Indian peace delegation this week had stated that "There is a need for ... un-interrupted as well as un-interruptible dialogue process to focus on the contentious issues and on promotion of trade, economic, intelligence sharing, sports and cultural co-operation." "Pakistan wishes to have friendly, co-operative and good neighbourly relations with India," Gilani had told the delegation.
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