T20 WC: Scotland hopes for timely Indian visas
Cricket Scotland chief executive Trudy Lindblade is confident that players of the national team, including Pakistan-origin pacer Safyaan Sharif, will get visas in time to travel to India for the T20 World Cup. Scotland were included into the T20 World Cup following Bangladesh’s withdrawal citing security concerns despite the ICC insisting that there were no threats as per their assessment.
Scotland will open their campaign against West Indies in Kolkata on February 7. Pakistan origin applicants of India visa attract more scrutiny and therefore taking more processing time. “We are all committed (to) working with the ICC to make that happen,” Lindblade was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “The visa piece is always slightly an unknown, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got three days or whether you’ve got 45 days.
“Certainly that’s been our focus in the last 48 hours: just getting those visas done so our players are all ready to go. They’re all in the middle of submitting their visas and we will be there on the ground in India as quickly as we can, so it’s just a matter of time now.” Sharif, who was born in Huddersfield to a Pakistani father and a British-Pakistani mother, shifted to Scotland as a seven-year-old.
“(The ICC) can only give us the assurances of the bits that they can control and, absolutely, of the bits that they control, we are working with them and obviously they’re working with the BCCI and local people on the ground there to make sure that we are getting all of that support that we need,” Lindblade said.
“So, absolutely, (they have given) the assurance that they can provide of things that were in their control. There is a team working very, very hard to not just help us, but to help 19 other teams as well that are also going to a World Cup. But we are their intense focus right now.” As a contingency plan, Scotland will also apply for visas for two travelling reserves and three non-travelling reserves to ensure they can field a team in case of delays.
“We [also] anticipate some support whenever we can [get it] from the BCCI,” Scotland’s head of performance, Steve Snell said. “I don’t think we need to escalate that any further to get into the country, because you’d suggest that Scotland being invited to attend the World Cup and then not being able to get there wouldn’t be a great look for anybody.” Scotland will play warm-up matches against Afghanistan and Namibia in Bengaluru on February 2 and 4 before their opening match against West Indies in Kolkata.
Their other first-round matches are against Italy, England and Nepal, with the top two teams in Group B qualifying for the Super 8s stage. “We do feel for Bangladesh”: Lindblade said Scotland sympathise with Bangladesh and that this was not how they wanted to compete in the ICC showpiece. “We certainly have for the Bangladesh team,” Lindblade said when asked if she had sympathy for the side they had replaced.
“Obviously, this is not how we wanted to go to a World Cup. There is a qualification process and nobody wants to qualify or attend or be invited to a World Cup in the way that we have done. We acknowledge it is certainly unique circumstances by our participation, and we do feel for the Bangladesh players.” Scotland had missed out on qualification after losing matches against Italy and Jersey at the Europe Regional Final last July.
