Pakistan-origin USA cricketers await visa clearance for T20 World Cup

MUMBAI: Four US cricketers of Pakistan origin - Ali Khan, Shayan Jahangir, Mohammad Mohsin and Ehsan Adil are awaiting visa clearance to travel to India for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka after attending their scheduled appointment on Tuesday and submitting their documents at the Indian High Commission in Colombo.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!An 18-member US squad is currently in Sri Lanka where they are holding a preparatory camp for the ICC tournament, which will begin on February 7. USA play defending champions India in their campaign opener on February 7 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The US final T20 World Cup squad will be announced later this month.

TOI understands that the players completed their visa appointments on Tuesday. While visas are not issued at the appointment stage, no US player’s visa has been rejected, a claim US pacer Ali Khan made on Tuesday in his Instagram story, triggering plenty of speculation. According to a source tracking developments, the US players have submitted all the documents as per the Indian embassy’s requirements."They had the appointment this morning at the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka. They completed the paperwork as per what ICC had asked them to prior to the appointments. At the appointment, the players were informed that the visas could not be processed at this stage. Later in the evening, USA management received a call from the Indian Embassy indicating that some of the required information had been received, while additional inputs were still awaited from the Foreign Ministry.

Once that process is complete, they will be contacted to proceed further. That is the current status" the source told TOI.

In the past visa applications of players of Pakistani origin travelling to India have involved an additional process, as per the India government’s protocol in this regard,m with the country’s external affairs ministry taking the final call in this regard. Over the years, English cricketers Moeen Ali and Shoaib Bashir and Aussie cricketer Usman Khawaja have all had to go through this process before touring India.

Apart from the USA, squads from most associate nations - UAE, Canada, Oman and Italy have players of Pakistani origin and will go through a similar protocol.The visa issue, though, is another dampener with the World Cup nearing, with the impasse between the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council over Bangladesh's reluctance to tour India for its scheduled World Cup fixtures showing no signs of a resolution.