Sourav Ganguly calls his team India's ambassadors to Pakistan. In reality, they are soldiers biding their time before the battle starts in right earnest.
The Indian team will have blanket security in Pakistan. Their phone calls will be monitored, private visitors will be restricted, and there will be almost no scope for recreation.
Ganguly and his boys took a special Indian Airlines plane from New Delhi for Karachi today, giving no specific replies, predicting nothing, and making no claims. Yes, Ganguly is confident that his team will win the Test series in Pakistan and soak up all the pressure that is bound to be there.
"When we tour abroad, we are like ambassadors of our country," Ganguly said this morning as he took the team to the prime minister's 7 Race Course Road residence for a meeting with Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee wants the team to win both matches and hearts in Pakistan.
Ganguly understands the challenges of playing cricket in a country that behaves like an estranged brother and affectionate friend at the same. For now he wants to keep the focus on the game.
But there are other pressing factors when India plays Pakistan at time when tourism and terrorism compete to find place with peace efforts and cricket. And so the team's officials were summoned to the external affairs ministry on Tuesday and briefed about the government's view of the entire series. Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Ratnakar Shetty said they were also given briefings about the security arrangements to be overseen by Yashovardhan Azad, the Intelligence Bureau officer who toured Pakistan with BCCI officials recently.
Shetty said the restrictions on players would be worked out trying to keep the players comfortable. The Pakistani government has already conveyed to India its assurance of "complete security of players", he said.
But Ganguly remains focussed on the team's performance. He knows it will be a tough challenge to play in Pakistan, and tougher to return home losers. The entire show depends on "how many runs we put up on the board" and how "all the eleven players" perform, he said after accepting a mile-long scroll containing the wishes of 30,000 people. It is a microcosm of a country of 100 crores that is holding its breath for one of the most action-packed months in recent history.
According to media reports and the visible frenzy, cricket is set to gather more viewers than the Indo-Pak Kargil conflict of 1999. And Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's rathyatra is sure to struggle against the madness and method, instinct and genius of the players.
Like a true commander before battle, Ganguly was evasive, deflecting attention from the result of the series, though he promised that his team would rewrite history. Coach John Wright thinks in the same vein. "We've got nothing to lose and everything to gain," he said a couple of hours before boarding the flight.
As the players packed their kits for Karachi this morning, Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said the series would be an opportunity to build "bridges between Pakistan and India and promote peace and fraternity".
That is the message of the Indian government too. According to a senior external affairs ministry official, the team has clear instructions to behave like peace ambassadors, not allowing any incident to go out of hand. "Even if the crowds are a little unruly," he said, "our players would behave in a manner that would fit the times."
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