Security brouhaha ends: Team leaves for India

LAHORE: After much hullabaloo, the 15-men squad led by skipper Shahid Afridi left for Abu Dhabi from where the team will travel to Kolkata on Saturday evening to participate in the World T20.

Head coach Waqar Younus and Manager Intikhab Alam are among the 12 officials of from Pakistan.

On Friday, Pakistan´s Interior Ministry cleared the national cricket team to travel to India for the World Twenty20 after getting the full security assurances from Indian authorities following concerns about player safety, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said.

Pakistan had earlier said its men´s and women´s teams would travel to India only after New Delhi gave a public guarantee on the safety of its players.

After a solid guarantee from New Delhi, Pakistan’s men’s and women’s cricket teams had been given a go ahead to travel to India.

Both teams were scheduled to depart for India earlier this week, but the departure was put on hold due to the controversy over security assurances.

The ICC moved Pakistan-India clash from Dharamsala to Kolkata, after the report of a three-member delegation from Pakistan that visited India to assess security arrangements in Dharamsala.