India denied Pakistan blind cricket team visas to participate in the Blind T20 World Cup

Pakistan blind cricket team, the reigning Blind T20 World Champions, have been denied visas by the Indian government to participate in the ongoing edition of the tournament.

However, the Press Trust of India (PTI) had run a piece of news, announcing India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had given clearance and after that Ministry of External Affairs will issue the visas to the Pakistani players and officials

The Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) condemned the Indian government and their media’s attempt to mislead the world into believing that the Pakistan blind cricket team have been granted entry to participate in the Blind T20 Cricket World Cup.

PBCC called out Indian bigotry in a strong-worded statement, where the governing body maintained that the host country did not issue visas merely on political grounds.

“This deceptive news spread like wildfire in Indian Media and created confusion in masses and sports journalists of both Pakistan and India that India has issued visas to Pakistan Blind Cricket Team,” said PBCC Chairman Syed Sultan Shah in a press release.

The statement added that the players had already collected their passports from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

“PBCC has made it clear yesterday that its Ministry of External Affairs India (MEA) denied visas to the Pakistan team on political grounds,” read the official statement. “Pakistan players have collected passports from Indian High Commission in Islamabad today [7th December 2022] around 2:30pm after receiving the passport collection e-mail from Indian High Commission, but no visa has been issued to the Pakistan team.”

The PBCC claimed that the Indian media tried to portray Pakistan as the antagonist by giving the impression that they are the ones who are not willing to participate in the multi-nation event. “This propaganda from the Indian State Media is just to mislead the international viewers as well as federations and states that India has issued visas and now it is Pakistan, which is refusing to appear for the T20 World Cup,” the statement highlighted.

The PBCC boss further lashed out that this misleading journalism is nothing short of adding salt to the injuries. He went on to explain the possible reasons behind running the false news as the Indian media wanted to ease a bit of pressure that has been growing on their government for mixing politics with sports.

“The basic objective of this deceptive news is to flatten the immense pressure of International communities on India who condemned and showed their disappointment on denying visas to Pakistan Blind Cricket Team to participate in the T20 World Cup on political grounds,” he said.

The statement pointed out that Pakistan are currently the top-ranked team in this format of blind cricket and they were one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

“The refusal of visas for the World Cup is to deprive us of winning the world title, this will have far deep consequences on global sports,” PBCC added.

Earlier, in a separate statement, the PBCC had stated that there were bright chances that Pakistan and India would have locked horns in the all-important final of the game.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Men-in-Green have got the better of their arch-rivals in the last five encounters in the shortest format of the game. “It was highly likely that Pakistan and India would have locked horns in the final of the ongoing World Cup and considering the current form of Green Shirts, Pakistan had a high chance to win the World Cup.”

PBCC claimed that their Indian counterpart, Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) did whatever it could to convince the authorities to issue the visa for the Pakistan team but they all went in vain.

“Our counterpart in India pleaded with their government for Pakistan’s clearance but nothing was heard,” the statement said. “This discriminating act will have serious consequences on global blind cricket as we at the World Blind Cricket will take stern action against them and may not allow India to host future international events.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also addressed the issue, maintaining sports should be kept above politics.

“As a result of the Indian decision, Pakistani players would be deprived of the opportunity to participate in an international sporting event of special significance,” the official statement read. “This reflects India’s insensitivity towards the promotion of sports meant for differently-abled persons.”

Moreover, the authorities concerned have assured the PBCC that their disappointment has conveyed to the relevant people across the border.

Pakistan team was supposed to leave for India on December 4, with all their matches set to take place in New Delhi and Bangalore.

The tournament, which will be played on a round-robin format with seven participating teams, is already underway from December 5 and will concluded on the 17^th of this month.

Not the first

It is not the first time that Pakistan’s blind cricketers have become a victim of Indian discrimination. Back in 2012, the Pakistan Blind Cricket Team captain Zeeshan Abbasi was admitted to the hospital after he ‘accidentally’ drank cleaning fluid during their participation in T20 World Cup in India.

At the time a member of the team management had said that the players and the support staff were given these bottles every day and how was anyone to know that the bottle contained acid, let alone someone who is visually impaired?

What made the whole incident more suspicious was the fact that the incident had occurred right after Pakistan had beaten the Indian team in a crunch game.

Ongoing rift

Recently, there has been a lot of noise around regarding the shifting of the Asia cup 2023 from Pakistan to a neutral venue because the Indian team cannot travel here.

In October last year, Pakistan was awarded the right to host Asia Cup by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) during an Executive Board meeting chaired by ACC President Jay Shah.

However, almost a year later, Shah, who is now the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) secretary, told reporters after an annual BCCI meeting that their team will not travel to Pakistan and the tournament will be shifted to a neutral venue.

“We [India] can’t go there, they can’t come here. In the past also, Asia Cup has been played at a neutral venue,” said Shah had said in October earlier this year.

Following the ‘surprising and disappointing’ statement as PCB put it, current chairman Ramiz Raja threatened of boycotting the World Cup if Pakistan is stripped of Asia Cup’s hosting rights.

Now, Raja, while talking to reporters on the sidelines during the first Test between Pakistan and England in Rawalpindi, has once again exhibited a firm stand on the issue, saying that if Asia Cup is shifted to a neutral venue, the only team pulling out of the tournament will be Pakistan.

“It’s not as if we don’t have hosting rights and we’re pleading to host it,” said Raja. “We won the rights fair and square. If India doesn’t come, they won’t come. If the Asia Cup gets taken away from Pakistan, maybe we’re the ones that pull out.”

India last travelled to Pakistan in 2008 for Asia Cup and Pakistan visited the neighbouring county in 2016 for the T20 World Cup. Due to the ever-increasing political rifts between the two countries, they have not played a bilateral series after 2012-2013, where the Green Caps stood victorious in the ODI series 2-1 and drew the T20I campaign 1-1.

The two Asian giants have been playing constantly in Asia and World Cups as it is the most commercially profitable contest.

“We have shown that we can host great teams,” Ramiz said. “I can understand issues relating to bilateral cricket, but the Asia Cup is a multi-nation tournament, almost as big as the World Cup for the Asian bloc.”

“Why give it to us in the first place and then make all those statements about India not travelling to Pakistan? I accept that India won’t come because the government won’t allow them to come – fine. But to take the Asia Cup away from the host on that basis isn’t right.”