LAHORE, Aug 10: Indian hockey team will arrive in Karachi after six years on Sept 23 to start an eight-match series with Pakistan on reciprocal basis. Beginning from Sept 24, the series will end on Oct 10 with each country staging four games, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) announced on Tuesday.

PHF secretary Brig Mussaratullah Khan told a press conference that the first leg of four matches would be played in Pakistan with an opener in Karachi. The second match will be held in Quetta on Sept 27, the third in Peshawar on Sept 29 and the fourth and last in Lahore on Oct 1.

Both the teams will then leave for New Delhi on Oct 2 to start the second leg in Chandigarh on Oct 4. The second match is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Oct 6, the third in Hyderabad on Oct 8 and the fourth in Bangalore on Oct 10.

Prior to press conference, a Dubai-based TV channel signed an agreement with the PHF for live telecast of the first leg of series in Pakistan. The channel will also broadcast domestic matches during next three years. The second leg in India will be aired by an Indian TV channel.

The federations of the two countries had been trying to hold the series since 2001, but their efforts failed to bear any fruit due to some political impediments. Mussaratullah said that two neutral umpires, one each from Malaysia and South Korea would conduct both legs of the series in assistance with two local umpires from India and Pakistan.