Cricket: Complete Guide to the World Cup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Everyone will be searched outside the ground and we'll stop any offensive banners or anything that could be used as a weapon, like a flagpole."

Lancashire chief executive Jim Cumbes on security for today's India-Pakistan match at Old Trafford

BETTING

MEDIA MONITOR

A MATTER OF TRUST

IT WAS Imran Khan who, in his own flamboyant but politically naive style, once declared that if Kashmir were the only issue between India and Pakistan, why not settle it on the cricket field with a match for territory? What a match that would have been, but such posturing only goes to show why there can never be lasting peace between the two nations, only tension made worse by nuclear capabilities.

India's The Tribune paints a gloomy picture of Indo-Pakistani relations.

FOR PAKISTAN, it would appear that nothing less than winning the World Cup is acceptable and even this may not be enough if the team should lose to India along the way. This is a very demanding public. If only it was equally demanding in matters of more weighty national activities, we would have no power cuts, no delayed PIA flights, no stuck-up loans, no tampering with due process of the law, no deaths from police encounters.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper on the curious nature of public expectation.

LADBROKES ARE offering 5-6 on the combination of Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushtaq taking the most wickets today, while India's Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble are priced at 9-4. Back a tie at 3-1.