PM to host cricket teams

Manmohan Singh will host a reception for the teams next month before the visitors leave for home at the end of their 50-day tour.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will host a reception for the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams next month before the visitors leave for home at the end of their 50-day tour, an Indian cricket board official said on Monday.

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"I have held talks with the Prime Minister in this regard and it has virtually been finalised that he would host the two teams on April 16 or 17," Rajeev Shukla, chairman of the communications and co-ordination committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said.

The sixth and final one-dayer would be played in New Delhi on April 17.

Shukla said that the reception would most probably be held at Manmohan Singh's 7 Race Course Road official residence.

A Pakistani team led by Wasim Akram had last visited India for a full-fledged series in 1999.

KR Narayanan, who was then the President, had hosted the two teams at a reception that was also attended by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

When the Indian team toured Pakistan last year, President Pervez Musharraf invited the players for high tea.

Indian Prime Ministers have been hosting visiting cricket teams from the time of the late Indira Gandhi.