The Pakistan Cricket team landed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airportat on Saturday evening; full-proof security arrangements were in place ahead of the team’s arrival.
For the security of the 15-man squad and 12 officials, police and army personnel were deployed along the route from the airport to the hotel.
Prior to the team’s arrival security was beefed up around the airport and an armoured bus was readied to transport the Pakistani players to their hotel.
After much hullabaloo, the squad led by skipper Shahid Afridi flew to Abu Dhabi and caught a connection to Kolkata on Saturday evening landing in Kolkata at 7:30PM PST to participate in the World T20.
Head coach Waqar Younus and Manager Intikhab Alam are among the officials accompanying the team.
On Friday, Pakistan´s Interior Ministry cleared the national cricket team to travel to India for the World Twenty20 after getting the full security assurances from Indian authorities following concerns about player safety, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said.
Pakistan had earlier said its men´s and women´s teams would travel to India only after New Delhi gave a public guarantee on the safety of its players.
After a solid guarantee from New Delhi, Pakistan’s men’s and women’s cricket teams had been given a go ahead to travel to India.
Both teams were scheduled to depart for India earlier this week, but the departure was put on hold due to the controversy over security assurances.
The ICC moved Pakistan-India clash from Dharamsala to Kolkata, after the report of a three-member delegation from Pakistan that visited India to assess security arrangements in Dharamsala.