Indian football team arrived in Lahore on Friday evening on an eight-day tour of Pakistan and immediately announced that it was in the city to make friends and win hearts of the people of Pakistan.
"We are not here to avenge for our defeat in the SAF Games. We are here to play good football, win the hearts of the people of Pakistan and football fans," India captain Shanmugam Venkatesh, who was India's 2004 Player of the Year, told reporters on arrival.
The Indian team was greeted at the airport by hundreds of football supporters. Pakistan Football
Federation president Faisal Saleh Hayat, who is also Federal minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, and other top PFF officials garlanded the 21 players and nine officials.
Adequate security arrangements were made at the airport but there were no gun-totting commandos like the ones who guarded the Indian cricketers who arrived in Lahore about 15 months ago.
"We have trained hard and are prepared to face a strong Pakistan team. I would not like to make any predictions about the series and would instead preserve my match comments till the final whistle," Venkatesh said.
The first match of the three-game series will be played at Quetta on Sunday while Peshawar will host the second match on June 16 with the final game on June 18.
This is Indian team's first visit to Lahore since July 1993 and this is the first-ever football series between the two countries.
"This will be an annual event but we will discuss with our Indian counterparts over the venue of next year's series.
There is also a proposal to invite Bangladesh and Sri Lanka," PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat told reporters at a press conference in Lahore.
The Indian squad:
Goalkeepers: VP Satish Kumar (Dempo SC), Sangram Mukherjee (East Bengal) and Sandip Nandy (Mahindra United).
Defenders: Mahesh Gawli, Manju Nanjangud Shivananju, Sukumar Singh (all Mahindra United), Syed Rahim Nabi, Habibur Rehman Mondal (both East Bengal), Philip Gomes (Dempo SC) and Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep (State Bank of Travancore).
Midfielders: Shanmugam Venkatesh, Jatin Singh Bisht (both Mahindra United), Clifford Miranda (Dempo SC), Bibiano Fernandes (Sporting Clube de Goa), Climax Lawrence (East Bengal), Jules Alberto Dias (Fransa FC) and Sukhwinder Singh (JCT Mills).
Strikers: Abhishek Yadav (Mahindra United), Sunil Chetri (Mohun Bagan AC), M A Abdul Hakkim (State Bank of Travancore), Surajit Bose (Tollygunge Aggragami).
