Three pacers kept on alert to reinforce Pakistan team in India

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board has kept three pacers on alert to fly out to India to reinforce the national team which is struggling to save the three-match Test series.

A PCB official said that visas had been obtained for Rao Iftikhar, Abdul Rauf and Mohammad Irshad.

"Their tentative travel bookings have also been made we are just waiting for a final word from the tour selection committee in India,"

he said.

Pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami are playing against at the Eden Gardens with being fully recovered from viral fever while captain Shoaib Malik is also not playing because of ankle sprain.

The Board was forced to fly out all-rounder Yasir Arafat few days back to strengthen the team as he was the only player who had a visa stamped on his passport while visas had not been obtained for the other pacers.

PCB came in for lot of flak for not making prior precautionary arrangements for the reserve players to fly out to India immediately in case of an emergency.

"Rao had a single entry visa and came back after playing in the One-day series. He was the first choice to fly out but we had no option but to send Arafat due to the urgency of the situation,"

the official said.

Pakistan has so far had a miserable tour of India and have been put to the sword in the second Test in Kolkatta.