Miandad plays perfect host

Pakistan coach Javed Miandad hosted a lavish dinner in honour of "old buddy" Dilip Vegsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar and a couple of his team-mates in Lahore on Saturday.

Pakistan coach Javed Miandad hosted a lavish dinner in honour of "old buddy" Dilip Vegsarkar, Little Master Sachin Tendulkar and a couple of his team-mates at his residence in Lahore on Saturday.

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Playing the perfect host, the wily old fox of cricket, had his guests enthralled by witty conversation which ran late into the night.

Miandad, who by his own account, relished unsettling the Indian batsmen in his hey days through sledging, acknowledged later that he was impressed by Tendulkar's humility despite his status as the greatest batsman of the generation.

"He has matured a lot now. He is also more relaxed and we enjoyed the evening with him," he was quoted as saying in the media.

The guests for the evening also included Multan triple-centurion Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and young wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.

Miandad said the dinner was especially in honour of his close friend Vengsarkar who was invited alongwith his family to watch the Lahore Test.

"We discussed a lot of things. Cricket obviously was the main topic. But there were a lot of discussions on other things also and we really enjoyed ourselves.

"We enjoyed playing hosts and serving them some delicious Pakistani cuisine," the legendary batsman said.