Pakistan cricket team is expected to arrive in India on February 25 on their first tour to the country since 1999.

Pakistan is scheduled to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and two practice matches during their 53-day tour, BCCI Secretary S K Nair said in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.

The visiting team would return home on April 18, he said.

BCCI's programme and fixture committee would meet shortly to finalise the venues and the dates for the matches, Nair said.

The plan was to hold a three-day practice match before the Test matches begin and there would also be a one-day practice match before the start of the ODI series, Nair said.

He said a representation from the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) requesting that Kochi be made one of the venues for the series was before the BCCI but felt that it would be difficult to host an ODI there if all of them were to be day-night encounters.

"We expect that our representation would get due consideration," Nair, who is also president of KCA, said.

The BCCI Secretary also said that Kolkata would most probably be the venue if India got a chance to host the second tsunami relief charity match.

Kolkata was considered the preferable venue as that was the place that could fetch handsome collection for the charity match, he added.

India's tour of Pakistan