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Pakistan arrive in Delhi; Asif ruled out with an elbow injury

Related Link : Pakistan’s Tour of India

The Pakistan One Day Side has arrived amidst a warm reception this evening at around 4:30 PM at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi this afternoon. The cricketers flew from Lahore in a 45-minute long flight. However, there was one key member missing in the Pakistani contingent and that was Mohammad Asif. The seamer has been ruled out for some part of the tour because of a recurring elbow injury.

According to reports, Mohammad Asif may be out of action for atleast one month which might rule him out of the entire One Day Series and the first two Test Matches. Asif was in hospital yesterday to get his elbow checked up and just hours before the team’s departure, it was decided that he wasn’t going to fly to India. The PCB hasn’t named any replacement for Mohammad Asif as it believes that the pacer may get fit before the fourth ODI. Asif’s injury problem had resurfaced during the fourth match of the South African series, an injury that initially hit him on the 2006 England tour. He had also missed the 2007 World Cup because of the same injury.

Pakistan to play Delhi tomorrow

Pakistan team will be playing a warm-up one dayer against Delhi tomorrow at Ferozshah Kotla. Delhi has named Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in its team for tomorrow’s game which begins at 9:00 AM. Pakistan after this match travel to Guwahati in Assam for the first One Dayer which is on the 5th.

Pakistani fans left disappointed with number of visas

Citing security reasons, the Indian Home Ministry had decided to issue a maximum of 250 visas for Pakistani fans. Despite a request from the Pakistan Cricket Board, the Indian Government has been reluctant to increase the number of visas. The reason is quite obvious because of the bombings in several cities and towns in India in the last couple of years. Another strong reason was that a number of Pakistani fans had gone missing after the last tour in India. The Indian Government failed to trace out the missing Pakistani Nationals who didn’t return back to their country. Following the experience, only 250 tickets will be available for the Pakistani supporters for each match compared to the figure of 1000 on the last tour. As many as 4000 visas were issued last time around in 2005 compared to just the 250 this time.