HYDERABAD: Cricket team arrived in arch-rivals India on Wednesday under tight security ahead of the seven-week long World Cup, their first visit to their neighbour since 2016, an AFP photographer said.

Excited crowds, held back by officers, cheered and shouted the team captain’s name Babar Azam, as the Pakistanis arrived at the airport in the southern city of Hyderabad for the ODI tournament which opens on October 5.

India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries with longstanding political tensions. The teams only play cricket against each other in international tournaments, and usually, the matches are staged in third countries.