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