Before the series started, this was the one place repeatedly mentioned as a security nightmare. Yet the Indian cricketers’ first walkabout, away from the stifling security of their hotel rooms, was here in Peshawar today.Film buffs to a man, the cricketers even visited the ancestral homes of Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar — and Shahrukh Khan.On the eve of their crunch match, they decided to check out the famous Kiskhani Bazar, where they bought chappals and marvelled at silk. They then drove down to Sadar Bazar where they shopped for the famous Peshawari carpets.Peshawar is very different from the rest of Pakistan. The contrast hits you as you drive in: dilapidated buildings, too quiet for words, an unwritten code of dos and don’ts — and a vague idea of what could happen should you violate that code.For the women in the media, especially, Peshawar can be difficult. Emerging from a guest house which she shared with an Ukrainian cargo pilot and UN staff, one was told travelling in a hired car — as opposed to walking out and hailing a cab — was near-mandatory and the dress code implicit.It doesn’t apply to women alone. Several TV men were told wearing shorts was not done.But these irritants apart, there’s a genuine feeling of goodwill, if not towards India, at least towards the game of cricket. Peshawar has long been cut off from the international circuit and has only just retrieved its place in the domestic scene.Bangladesh was the last team to visit Peshawar in August last year. This city has three players — Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan and Yasir Hameed — in the national squad.Nadeem Akhtar, the scorer at the Arbab Niaz Stadium, tells you that the last time Afridi played here, he was out for a duck. Almost immediately, people started leaving the ground. ‘‘He is the biggest draw here,’’ says Akhtar.It upsets Younis to see people elsewhere paint such a dark picture of Peshawar: ‘‘The town is very peace loving. When you watch the match, you will get to see the most sporting crowd of the series.’’There’s craze here for the Indian cricketers and ‘local star’ Shahrukh Khan. Almost everybody, from the hotel waiters to those in the crowd outside the NWFP Cricket Academy, where the two teams practised today, came to you asking for only two men: Sachin Tendulkar and Shahrukh Khan.
