The Pakistan Cricket Board said it has returned 4,500 tickets to the Board of Control for Cricket in India following a lukewarm response for the Mohali Test, starting on March 8.

"We returned 4,500 tickets to the Indian cricket board on Wednesday so that they have ample time to sell them. Out of the 7,500 tickets received from BCCI, only 3,000 were bought by people interested in going to Mohali," PCB General Manager (Cricket Operations) Subhan Ahmed said from Lahore [Images].

He said the Pakistan spectators appeared more keen in visiting other Indian cities.

"We are receiving plenty of queries for other cities like New Delhi and Bangalore. We are expecting that a lot more people will travel to India as the series would progress."

However, Iqbal Junani, Manager (travel and financial service) American Express, who are the official tour operators, said tickets were returned to meet the cut-off date that was set by the Indian cricket board.

"We were advised to return the unsold tickets by March so that they could be sold in Mohali," he said.

"Out of the 3,500 tickets, only nine were sold in Karachi and 165 were sold in Islamabad while the remaining 2,826 were sold in Lahore."

The Indian High Commission officials also confirmed that only 3000 visas were issued to fans to watch the match in Mohali.

Junani said Pakistan cricket followers are more interested in visiting India for more than one match.

"We have requested the PCB to provide tickets allocations for remaining matches so that we can start the sale. I have updated them that for the future games, logistical arrangements will be involved and if the required information was provided late, the spectators could face real problems."

The second cricket Test begins in Kolkata from March 16 and the third and final Test in Bangalore on March 24. The six match one-day series gets underway in Kochi on April 2.