An upbeat Indian team arrived in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday to play a warm up game before the March 13 opener at Karachi, port city of Pakistan.

India's cricket captain Sourav Ganguly said his team would return victorious from the upcoming tour of Pakistan, first by an Indian team in 15 years.

India's cricket team is due to travel to neighboring Pakistan Wednesday on a 39-day trip that has generated euphoria on the either side of the border of the two cricketing mad nations.

"We will change all that," Ganguly told reporters in Calcutta, when reminded that India had never won a Test match on Pakistan soil.

Ganguly said his players were under no additional pressure to play in Pakistan, India's arch foe neighbor.

"International cricket is all about pressure whether you are playing Australia or Pakistan," Ganguly said Tuesday.

Indian team's coach. John Wright, said the team was looking to take up the challenge.

"All the boys are looking forward to the tour. We have got nothing to lose and everything to gain from this series," Wright said.

Despite the brave face being put forward by the team management, the players would be under tremendous pressure due to a tight security cordon.

The players will have only two scheduled dinner outings during the six-week tour, and remaining evenings are to be spent indoors in the hotel under the shadow of armed security men.

India's star batsmen Sachin Tendulkar, who is the only player in the current team to have played in Pakistan during the last tour in 1989, said keeping his weight in check would overshadow any fears about personal safety.

Tendulkar, regarded as cricket's god in India, said the idea of being confined to hotel rooms in the evenings due to the stifling security would be daunting.

"It's going to be tough, not easy to relax your mind," Tendulkar said.

"But you can watch movies, listen to music, get together and hope not to put on weight."

This is the first tour of Indian team where each player is insured for $500,00 for any casualty in a terrorist attack. Also, this is the first time India's foreign ministry will brief players on dos and don'ts on the trip.

"Don't accept gifts. Don't agree to free lunches or dinners. Don't sneak out for fun either," are some of the pointers told to the players.

India and Pakistan are delicately poised in their diplomatic dialogue to end decades of mistrust and hostility. Any incident involving the Indian cricket team is sure to hamper the peace gestures between the two arch foe neighbors.

The cricket tour is part of the confidence building measures between the two nations that have witnessed bitter political and military rivalry ever since gaining independence from Britain 56 years ago.

India let its cricketers travel to Pakistan after Islamabad assured a foolproof security arrangement. However, to be on the safe side, Indian team management opted not to play Test Matches - five-day version of the cricket game- in Karachi and Multan, considered hotbeds of Islamic militants.

Ganguly said that the Indian team goes as an ambassador whether it is to South Africa or Australia. Pakistan was "of course a bit different."

"It is a big series because a tour of Pakistan is looked at differently".

Though the two former world champions have often clashed on foreign soil, Hindu-majority India last played a cricket match in Pakistan in 1989.

The on-field clash between the two nations transcends athletics. Nationalism is at its peak during matches between the two cricket-mad nations.

Islamabad had to cancel its 1991 and 1993 tours to India following threats by Hindu radical leaders of violence at the sporting venues.

People of the two nations can tolerate losing to any team in the world but each other.

The houses of losing team members have been stoned in the past, while the victorious team is loaded with innumerable gifts.

Tickets for the March 13 tour opener in Karachi have were sold out within hours. Thousands of Indian cricket fans are due to travel to Pakistan to cheer their team.

"Indian players know that they are one step away from history if they a win a series in Pakistan," coach John Wright said.

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