Indian fans hosted by Pak club

It was the turn of the Indian fans to be feted as a local cricket club hosted a lunch for those who travelled from across the border.

It was the turn of the Indian fans to be feted as a local cricket club hosted a lunch for those who travelled from across the border to watch the ongoing third Test match between India and Pakistan.

Rawalpindi's Cricket Promoters Club organised the lunch Friday at Park Lane Hotel, which is almost adjacent to the Pindi Cricket Stadium, the venue of the match.

Around 150 of the 800-odd Indian fans who have come to watch the Test walked to the hotel during the lunch interval and returned before the action resumed after the break.

The club president, Mohammed Tahir Ansari, said it was a grand opportunity to do "something" at the people-to-people level besides the arrangements made by the Pakistan government to make the Indians' stays comfortable here.

"When the boards and the government of the two countries are promoting friendship, we also wanted to do something and hence this lunch," said Ansari, whose parents originally belonged to Ambehta town in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

Former India players Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sanjay Manjrekar and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive Rameez Raja were also invited for the lunch.

Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed still a hit

Former Pakistan captain Saeed Anwar continues to draw fans even after retiring from cricket and preferring to maintain a low profile.

Anwar had turned to preaching even when he was on the last legs of his glorious career. These days he wears kurta-pajama and a skull-cap, has a long, flowing beard and is busy in religious activities.

On Thursday, he was spotted at Marriott Hotel and fans immediately mobbed him for autographs. The former left-handed batsman obliged everyone.

Another former Pakistan Test player who was seen in the lobby was Ijaz Ahmed, a solid batsman in his days, who visited India on the 1999 tour.

He said he had signed a contract with a Dubai-based television channel as a cricket expert. "I am now based in Dubai these days, but since my family is still in Lahore, I return on the weekends and again go back before the start of the week," he told IANS.

Ijaz also runs a sports good store in Pakistan.

Fan craze dims with Pakistani performance

The number of fans who had been thronging hotel lobbies to take autographs and pose for photographs with the Indian and Pakistani players has drastically reduced after Pakistan's poor performance in the ongoing third Test here.

These days few fans visit Marriott Hotel, where the two teams are staying. This is in contrast to the scene during the second one-day international last month when the hotel foyer was jam-packed for the three days that the teams were here.

But a few diehard youngsters were seen Thursday with miniature bats in their hands that they had brought along to take autographs on.