Karachiites' Sunday options: Bryan Adams or cricket

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, Indo-Asian News Service

Karachi, Jan 29 (IANS) Young Karachiites may face a difficult choice Sunday - to watch the first day of the third India-Pakistan cricket Test or travel 35 km to watch the Bryan Adams music show.

Those youngsters who do not want to miss out on either event will be racing against time, literally, because after the day's play at the National Stadium they will have to drive down to the Arabian Sea Country Club (ASCC) to watch the singer perform from 8 p.m.

The music show is being organised to raise money for victims of the October earthquake. About 73,000 people were killed and millions left homeless in the disaster that shook the northern areas of India and Pakistan.

Organisers of the Bryan Adams show say the performance would be the first of its kind in Pakistan. Over 10,000 people are expected to throng the lush green lawns of ASCC, not far from the Arabian Sea.

'About 10,000 people are expected,' ASCC chief executive Arif Ali Khan Abbasi told IANS.

Abbasi, also a former CEO and treasurer of the Pakistan Cricket Board, agreed that those who would want to watch both cricket and the music show would have to rush.

'Music fans are usually different from cricket fans. But yes, there will be some common fans and they will have to make a difficult choice,' he said.

India and Pakistan will be playing a five-day Test match at the National Stadium after 16 long years.

With the series level at 0-0 after the first two Tests, interest in the third match has gone up. Both teams will try to win the match and with it the series.

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