But captain Sourav Ganguly and his teammates left hundreds of eager fans, who burst crackers and danced to drumbeats, bitterly disappointed after failing to make an appearance, whisked away through a side entrance of the chaotic Indira Gandhi Interna-tional Airport in New Delhi on arriving from Islamabad.

"I came to see Sachin Tendulkar, but I just managed to catch a glimpse of (Ashish) Nehra," said eight-year-old fan Reshma, who had been waiting with her father for over three hours.

Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Karunakaran Nair said the players were not paraded before the fans for fear of being mobbed.

"Everything is chaotic. We had no other option but to ask the players to quickly leave," he said.

With Delhi lads Virender Sehwag, Nehra, Akash Chopra and Murali Karthik going home straight, Ganguly led a group of his boys to a city hotel for overnight stay. Neither the captain nor the other players talked to the waiting newsmen.

At the hotel, Rahul Dravid, Venkasai Laxman and Laxmipathy Balaji received loud cheers from a crowd gathered at the entrance, as the players were given a traditional welcome with the hotel staff garlanding them.

Yuvraj Singh, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan and his father and Laxman's wife Shailaja also got into the hotel.

Millions of cricket-mad Indian fans celebrated on Friday after India inflicted an innings defeat in the deciding third Test in Rawalpindi to clinch the series 2-1.

The tourists also won the one-day series, making a clean sweep and marking India's first overseas Test series win in a decade.

India had gone into their first Test series in Pakistan for over 14 years without a single victory in 20 previous matches.

The welcome party at the air port was led by hundreds of members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), waving party flag and beating drums.

The BJP, which heads the ruling coalition, is aiming to cash in on the positive mood generated by the cricket success and peace moves with Pakistan in the general election starting next week.

More than a thousand employees of the Indian company spon

soring the team besides a huge media contingent, including TV channels telecasting the arrival live, were also present.

But to their dismay, the players were briefly received by a federal minister before being escorted away.

The cricket rivalry between India and Pakistan is so intense that many offices shut down throughout the series as employees followed the fortunes of their team on television.