Dance
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KARACHI: The Sri Lankan tennis team defied security concerns by coming to Pakistan to feature in the UBL international hard court tennis championship which is underway at the Karachi Gymkhana.
Im happy to be in Pakistan and the visit will strengthen the existing cordial ties between our two countries, an optimistic coach of the visiting team Dinith Pathiraja, told Dawn soon after arrival on Sunday evening.
Dinith, who is on his maiden trip to the country, is accompanied by three boys and two girls. They included national champion and Davis Cupper Thangarajah Dineshkanthan, junior under-16 champion Nishangan Nadaraja, junior under-18 player Madusha Wijesuriya, under-14 girl player Hasindhi Lokuge and unseeded Khadija Khan.
Thangarajah Dineshkanthan is the only player who has visited the country before.
The visiting official, who is associated with the team as coach for a decade now, said his tennis federation was pleased after receiving an invitation for the event.
He said two promising players, under-14 Chehan Fernando and national ladies champion could not make it to the trip.
The former, who was selected in the ITF traveling team on his performance at Myanmar this year, was down with dengue epidemic while the latter was occupied with her examinations.
He replied in negative when asked was there any fear before coming to Pakistan and added we too have overcome turmoil.
Pakistans ace player Aqeel Khan had a one month coaching stint with the Sri Lankan Davis Cup team earlier this year.
It is pertinent to mention that Sri Lankan cricket team came under deadly attack in Lahore in March 2009 that tarnished Pakistans image globally putting an embargo on foreign teams visit to the country.Sports Correspondent
Sri Lankans happy to be in Pakistan | Sport | DAWN.COM
Im happy to be in Pakistan and the visit will strengthen the existing cordial ties between our two countries, an optimistic coach of the visiting team Dinith Pathiraja, told Dawn soon after arrival on Sunday evening.
Dinith, who is on his maiden trip to the country, is accompanied by three boys and two girls. They included national champion and Davis Cupper Thangarajah Dineshkanthan, junior under-16 champion Nishangan Nadaraja, junior under-18 player Madusha Wijesuriya, under-14 girl player Hasindhi Lokuge and unseeded Khadija Khan.
Thangarajah Dineshkanthan is the only player who has visited the country before.
The visiting official, who is associated with the team as coach for a decade now, said his tennis federation was pleased after receiving an invitation for the event.
He said two promising players, under-14 Chehan Fernando and national ladies champion could not make it to the trip.
The former, who was selected in the ITF traveling team on his performance at Myanmar this year, was down with dengue epidemic while the latter was occupied with her examinations.
He replied in negative when asked was there any fear before coming to Pakistan and added we too have overcome turmoil.
Pakistans ace player Aqeel Khan had a one month coaching stint with the Sri Lankan Davis Cup team earlier this year.
It is pertinent to mention that Sri Lankan cricket team came under deadly attack in Lahore in March 2009 that tarnished Pakistans image globally putting an embargo on foreign teams visit to the country.Sports Correspondent
Sri Lankans happy to be in Pakistan | Sport | DAWN.COM
That's like saying Afghanistan is safe my chacha just came back from there! haha
