Pak rugby players cleared by their govt: Indian official

The Pakistan government has given its national rugby team the go ahead to participate in the Commonwealth test event to be held here from April 2-3.

The Pakistan government has given its national rugby team the go ahead to participate in the Commonwealth test event to be held here from April 2-3.

Rugby India Vice-President Aga Hussain said that the Pakistan government has cleared its team's participation in the two-day event. He said the Pakistan team will arrive here on Thursday.

"The team will be arriving here on Thursday, may be in the afternoon. I was in constant touch with Pakistan Rugby Union president on this and he informed me their government has cleared their participation. The players will get visas tomorrow and they will be arriving in India on April 1," Hussain said.

"It's a very exciting development and we all are looking forward to welcome them. It's been a long time since both teams have played each other. It's a very positive development for both Pakistan rugby players as well as we organisers. We all very happy," Hussain said.

The Pakistani federation was waiting for their government clearance as the Indian government had well in advance given the team members visas to arrive and play here in the event.

PRU secretary Fawzi Khwaja had earlier said that the players were well prepared to leave even a day before the start of the event.

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Malaysia, Brunei, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are participating in the event to be played at the Delhi University.

The teams have been divided into two pools and the top two teams from each group will advance into the semi finals. Pakistan play India in the opener.