After several delays, the Indian government finally granted visas to the Pakistan cricket squad on Monday, allowing them to travel to India for the World Cup. This was confirmed by Umar Farooq Kalson, the spokesperson for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in an interview with Dawn.com.
“We finally received a call from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to collect the passports,” he stated.
The team is scheduled to depart from Lahore to Dubai on September 27 before heading to Hyderabad, India, where they will play two warm-up matches – one against New Zealand on September 29 and another against Australia on October 3.
This development followed the PCB’s approach to the International Cricket Council (ICC) earlier in the day, expressing concerns about the “extraordinary delays” in obtaining Indian visas.
“We have written to the ICC, raising our concerns about the unequal treatment towards Pakistan and reminding them of their obligations for the World Cup,” Farooq mentioned.
“It’s disappointing that the Pakistan team had to endure this uncertainty right before the major tournament.”
Farooq explained that the PCB had been reminding the ICC about these obligations for the past three years, but the situation came to a head in the last two days, with the first warm-up game just around the corner on September 29.
Due to visa delays, the team had to cancel its pre-World Cup team bonding event in Dubai. Originally, they were supposed to depart on September 25 and spend two days in Dubai. Pakistan’s first match in the tournament is against the Netherlands on October 6.
Not only the cricket team but also fans and journalists who planned to attend the tournament faced challenges in obtaining visas through the Indian High Commission’s website. The website remained inaccessible, causing frustration among applicants. Some Lahore-based journalists even had to rely on agents to fill out online forms, incurring additional costs.
To address the website accessibility issues, visa seekers resorted to using VPNs to access the site. The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Sports Journalists Association issued a statement expressing their concerns, noting that even media persons accredited with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the ICC were encountering difficulties.
The association appealed to the Indian High Commission to accept hand-filled visa applications if the issues persisted, emphasizing the urgency due to the limited time left before the start of the mega event.
