India, Pakistan bury differences

BANGKOK, DEC 7: Both India and Pakistan have decided against lodging formal protests vis-a-vis Sunday8217;s Yasin Merchant vs Muhammad Saleh snooker match which ended in the former8217;s favour, but amidst controversy. As Indian team coach Michael Ferreira explained on Monday after watching Yasin enter the quarter-finals: quot;We were made to know of the procedures for lodging a protest only this morning. In any case, we might have over-reacted in the heat of the moment, but it is not our intention to disrupt the competition in any way. I will be issuing a formal statement.quot;

It may be recalled that Yasin refused to accept referee8217;s ruling on a foul shot that he had played. The incident snowballed with the match being stopped before the issue could be resolved. Ferreira handed in a quot;protestquot; letter while the Pakistanis also announced their intention to follow suit against stoppage of the match.

Pakistan team manager Shahanaz Khan said: quot;We have too strong a feeling for India to make an issue of the incident. If it wasany other country, then we might have gone ahead with the protest. But we genuinely like India and since we enjoy a good relationship, we will not do anything to harm our friendship.quot;