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NEW DELHI (India): Pakistan High Commission to India Thursday started receiving applications for issuing visas to Indian Cricket fans, proceeding to watch upcoming Indo-Pak cricket series in Pakistan.

According to the projections of BCCP, around 8000 Indian cricket fans are likely to proceed to Pakistan to witness the upcoming Indo-Pak matches, who would be issued visas.

The Indian cricket fans, applying for visas would have to produce the online booking receipts of the match tickets. Visas would be issued to only ticket holders, the spokesman of Pakistan High Commission said adding a special counter has been set up for this purposes.

Meanwhile, to facilitate the Indian fans to witness the upcoming Indo-Pak cricket matches in Pakistan, the airlines, the railways and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) would explore with their Pakistani counterparts running of extra services to cope up with the rush.

An inter-ministerial meeting was held yesterday at the External Affairs Ministry where the possibility of operating additional air, rail and bus services during the period of the matches in Pakistan was discussed at length. "The airlines, the railways and DTC would now explore with their counterparts (in Pakistan) the possibility of running extra services on those days," External Affairs Ministry spokesman said.

PIA doubles India flights

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced Thursday it would double flights between Pakistan and India from March 25 -- a day after the eagerly anticipated one-day cricket series between the two nations ends.

PIA will increase to 12 the number of weekly flights as part of its summer schedule, although the five-match one-day series being staged in Pakistan will end on March 24.

Although the one-day series will be followed by three, five-day Test matches, beginning on March 28, the longer games are expected to draw fewer fans. "We will try to carry as many fans as possible to Pakistan for the cricket series, but yes the one-day series ends a day prior to the start of our summer schedule," said Salim Janjua, PIA passenger sales manager.

Janjua said the airline had been unable to raise the number of flights before March 25 as most of its aircraft had been deployed to bring Muslims back from the recently-ended Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. He said some 180,000 devotees had already been brought home but that others were still awaiting flights.

In a bid to meet the demands of cricket fans, however, PIA is planning to use bigger aircraft. "We will operate bigger Boeing 747 aircraft rather than the Airbus 300, which will raise the seat capacity to around 430 per flight from 250," Janjua told a French news agency.

The Indian cricket team leave next Wednesday for their first full tour of Pakistan in almost 15 years. Prospects of the clash between the cricketers of the two arch-rivals is creating a frenzy among cricket fans in both countries.

"We have been getting hundreds of calls from fans since the series was announced, but we have not blocked any tickets as we will be issuing seats only when the visas are confirmed," Janjua said.

"We are first checking the match tickets and visas and only then allotting seats as we do not want to be in a position where we have a large aircraft ready but not that many travellers due to lack of visas," Janjua said.

Since January 1 when airlinks between India and Pakistan were restored as part of a peace process, PIA has been operating two weekly return flights from Bombay to Karachi and four from Delhi -- two each to Karachi and Lahore. "These will be increased to five flights from Bombay and seven from Delhi from March 25," Janjua said.

He said since flights had restarted, the airline had been flying almost to capacity. "The Indian route is profitable and with peace moves on between the two countries, we are seeing a lot of business delegations, film personalities and relatives from both sides travelling," he added.

Press reports here have said PIA earns a monthly revenue of 10 million rupees (22,000 dollars) from the India route.

Indian Team to meet Vajpayee before departure

India's cricket team will call on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee next week before they embark on the first full tour of Pakistan in 15 years, it was announced on Thursday.

Vajpayee will receive Sourav Ganguly's men at his residence here on Wednesday, a few hours before the team departs for Lahore by a special Indian Airlines flight.

"Considering the importance of the goodwill tour, the prime minister will personally meet the team members and extend his good wishes to them," a cricket board release said.

The Indian team, which will undergo a three-day conditioning camp in Calcutta from Sunday, will arrive in New Delhi a day before their departure. Besides meeting with the prime minister, the team will also attend briefings by security agencies and the foreign office, the cricket board release said.

Media reports on Thursday quoted government officials as saying that a four-member security detail will accompany the team on the 40-day tour. It includes Yashovardhan Azad, an intelligence official in the VIP division of the home ministry, who toured Pakistan with a cricket board delegation last month to oversee arrangements at various venues. The other members of the security team are three senior police officials Manoj Lal, Dharmendra Kumar and Prabhakar, who like many Indians uses only one name.

First ODI tickets to go on sale from Saturday

Tickets for the opening One-day International (ODI) between Pakistan and India will be put on sale from Saturday at booths of National Stadium, Karachi.

Tickets in denomination of Rs 1500, Rs 1200, Rs 800, Rs 500 and Rs 100 for General Enclosure will be available at these booths from 9.00 A.M. to 6.00 P.M. These will be available for sale on the next day in case they remained unsold on the first day. PCB Chairman had earlier announced the rates of tickets during the press conference.

However, the rate of tickets for General Enclosure has been slashed from Rs 150 to Rs 100. A spokesman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said Thursday that number of tickets in the General Enclosure has been increased from 7000 to 11,000 to allow lower income group to watch the match in large numbers. National Identity Card will not be required for buying the tickets, he said.

The National Stadium has the capacity of over 33,731. About 20 percent tickets have already been sold through on-line facility for the overseas visitors including cricket-lovers from India. The remaining around 25,000 will be available for sale through these booths.

Meanwhile, Security Incharge of visiting Indian cricket team Sohail Khan visited various parts of National Stadium with PCB General Manager Operations Zakir Khan Wednesday. Sohail Khan, a senior superintendent of Police from Islamabad also held meetings with top officials of Sindh Police including City Police Chief Tariq Jamil regarding various security aspects.

Madugalle named ICC Referee for Indo-Pak Series

Former Sri Lankan captain Ranjan Madugalle will oversee the upcoming Pakistan-India series as chief referee for the International Cricket Council, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced.

Madugalle, who played 21 Tests and 63 one-day matches and also captained his country, is a well-respected ICC referee. The 44-year-old has served as an ICC Match Referee since 1994 and has officiated in matches involving all Test playing nations.

The PCB has also named a panel of local umpires who will stand beside ICC neutral umpires in the five-match one-day series, which starts in Karachi on March 13.

Australian Simon Taufel and English veteran David Shepherd will stand in the one-day series, while West Indian Steve Bucknor and South African Rudi Koertzen will join the two for the three-match Test series.