From rxpgnews.com
South African Indians' evening out with cricketers
By Fakir Hassen, Indo-Asian News Service,
Nov 20, 2006 - 4:47:26 PM
Johannesburg, Nov 20 (IANS) Several members of the Indian community here were given a special opportunity to meet the visiting Indian cricket team, though the players were clearly in not too much of a mood to socialise.
Most of the guests at the reception hosted by Indian Consul-General Navdeep Suri at his residence here Sunday appeared to be in awe of the team. And much of the Indian squad stayed to themselves, enjoying their drinks in small groups or clinically posing for photographs.
The exceptions were captain Rahul Dravid and Harbhajan Singh, who were friendly with almost everyone.
Ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar had warm words for former South African cricket supreme Ali Bacher when he arrived late, but was rather cold when representatives of the Satya Sai Centre, who said they had met him at spiritual leader Sai Baba's ashram in India as a fellow devotee, tried to get a picture with him. Several other guests met with the same response.
Harbhajan Singh endeared himself to all as one of only two turbaned Sikhs at the event, the other being a local businessman originally from India.
The reticence of the players was, however, offset by the warm addresses by the host and Minister in the Office of the President Essop Pahad.
Suri cautioned the team that they would be the underdogs against the South Africans. 'The South African team are especially good on home conditions. You're going to face bouncy tracks, seaming conditions and some really fast bowling.'
In a tongue in cheek speech, Pahad reminded the team that Gandhi had started his leadership in South Africa and 'therefore what you should do in the spirit of Gandhian non-violence is to be very kind to us'.
Pahad is also the acting minister of sport as the incumbent is out of the country.
Dravid said: 'It's always a pleasure to be back in South Africa. It's my fourth visit. We've always enjoyed our cricket here, and though we've never had the kind of success that we would have liked, we're definitely going to change that on this tour. The boys have a tough tour ahead of them for the following eight weeks and are really looking forward it.'
Suri ended the formal proceedings with a comment that raised some laughs: 'I'm going to shed aside my diplomatic pretences and say that may the best team win and may that team be India!'
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