On a different plane8230;

One of the biggest myths of this admittedly fledgling tour is the thrill of flying with the Indian team. Though you8217;re technically on t...

One of the biggest myths of this admittedly fledgling tour is the thrill of flying with the Indian team. Though you8217;re technically on the same plane as them, they may as well be on a different planet: you can barely see them and journalists definitely can8217;t get too close. And yet you suffer from the same security procedures.

On the Lahore-Karachi flight, the players were, as usual, seated separately from the normal public. Only team manager Ratnakar Shetty, media manager Amrit Mathur and senior batsman VVS Laxman decided to sit with hoi polloi. Laxman was plugged into his walkman and was fast asleep when a fan approached him for an autograph. Ramesh Powar, though, was feeling restless and decided to take a walk instead. 8216;8216;I am tired of sitting, so decided to check out the flight,8217;8217; said Powar.

Signature tune
The Indian team has fans in Pakistan 8212; and even on the 100-minute PIA flight. No prizes for guessing everyone8217;s favourite: Sachin Tendulkar. Everyone wanted his autograph but eventually Mohammed Hashim, a Karachi-based medical student, hit the jackpot. Not only did he get that prized autograph, he got those of 11 other Indian players too.

Brothers Ali Hamid and Ahmed Ali, who8217;ve just finished their school exams and are on vacation, weren8217;t so lucky. They had their pieces of paper ready in the hope of meeting 8216;the man8217; but were dissuaded by the cabin crew. Eventually, they turned to the journalists. 8216;8216;We cannot get to see the matches, so this was our only opportunity to meet him Sachin Tendulkar. Can you try getting his autograph for us?8217;8217;

The VVIP hassles
The plane lands at Karachi8217;s Quaid-I-Azam International Airport but here again the security drills have been in put in place. The cabin crew announces that 8216;8216;no one will disembark till the Indian team leaves.8217;8217; This is enough to irritate most passengers. 8216;8216;Will this happen if the Pakistan team is with us? I don8217;t think so,8217;8217; sighed one middle-aged man.

The team leaves and, 10 minutes later, we are free to go. But, as we reel from the heat as hot as Mumbai, there is one more catch: we8217;ve landed at the old terminal, now used only for Haj flights and cargo. Karachi has a new terminal which is two miles from the the old. So one hour after having reached Karachi it8217;s time to pick up the luggage, but too late to hear what Inzy Bhai and Javed Bhai have to say.