Cricket brings the rivals together

CENTURION-All roads around this small town, all the way from nearby cosmopolitan Johannesburg and other towns in the vicinity, led to the cricket ground. A profusion of Indian and Pakistani supporters, clogged the roads and entrances which ended up filling the Supersport Park to capacity, with each of its 20,000 seats taken.

This smallish ground neither had the atmosphere of the Wanderers' famous bullring nor the picturesque aura of Newlands, under the majestic shadow of Table Mountain, in Cape Town. But the cacaphony of a highly boisterous partisan crowd made the ambience electric in the extreme, and to the two teams it must have looked like a cauldron.

The Indian tri-colour outnumbered the Pakistani green by around 10 to one. That there weren't serious scuffles between the protagonists of the two sides and peace was maintained was mostly because of the strong presence of security.

As a gesture of goodwill the two sides lined up before the start of the match for handshakes, and Waqar and Ganguly presented each other their team ties.

This was a first of a kind ceremony during the 2003 World Cup. "Once again cricket is demonstrating its power to bring together people of different cultures, religions and races and we would like to congratulate both the Indian and Pakistani teams on their gesture to strengthen ties between their two countries", said Dr Ali Bacher, executive director of the World Cup.

But if the gesture was meant to pacify the crowd, it didn't work as throaty slogan-mongering went in overdrive as soon as the battle was joined.