Rajiv Shukla, senior member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has said that the match between India and Pakistan would be played in Multan as scheduled on Thursday and ruled out any change in the itinerary of the Indian cricket team.
"Let me assure you that the match is very much on," Shukla told rediff.com on Wednesday evening in New Delhi.
India Television had reported that the Indian team is likely to return home without playing the fourth and fifth one-day internationals because of the tension in Multan, Lahore and some other cities of Pakistan.
Multan city witnessed large scale arson by crowds who were protesting against the cartoons of Prophet Mohammad that were printed in Denmark newspapers and reprinted in many other European countries.
Home minister Shivraj Patil and his colleagues were attending a dinner hosted by Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and hence their reactions could not be ascertained.
A top official of the intelligence bureau said that as of now there is no threat to the Indian team and hence the remaining two matches to be played in Multan on Thursday and last one in Karachi to be played on February 18 could go on as scheduled.
"So far we have not got any alarming signal from our officer who is with the Indian team. We know the situation is bad and we are keeping a constant vigil on it. If the situation deteriorates further tomorrow in Multan then there is a possibility of match being called off because we would not like to take undue risk with our players," the officer said.
Senior home ministry officials are also in touch with the security agencies and management of the Indian team in Multan to keep themselves abreast of the latest developments.
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