{"id":362429,"date":"2024-01-24T18:42:21","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T19:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362429"},"modified":"2024-01-24T22:02:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T22:02:29","slug":"stokes-reveals-boycott-threat-as-india-visa-saga-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362429","title":{"rendered":"Stokes reveals boycott threat as India visa saga ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

An England cricketer<\/a>\u2019s problems obtaining a visa for the team\u2019s Test<\/a> series in India have prompted the British government to call for fair treatment for any of its citizens seeking to enter the Asian country.<\/p>\n

Shoaib Bashir, a 20-year-old British Muslim of Pakistani heritage, was the only member of England\u2019s touring party to experience a significant delay over his visa application<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of flying to India with the rest of his teammates from Abu Dhabi, where England held a pre-series training camp, Bashir had to fly back to London and present his passport in person in an effort to get the correct approval at the Indian embassy.<\/p>\n

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Bashir finally received his visa on Wednesday night (AEDT) and is due to join up with the team in India this weekend, the England and Wales Cricket Board said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re glad the situation has been resolved,\u201d the ECB said.<\/p>\n

\"Shoaib<\/p>\n

England captain Ben Stokes said his initial reaction was to refuse to travel to India until Bashir\u2019s case was sorted, before quickly backing down because of the ramifications such a decision would have.<\/p>\n

The British government also reacted, saying \u201cwe absolutely expect India to treat British citizens fairly at all times in its visa process".<\/p>\n

Without wanting to comment on the specifics of Bashir\u2019s case, a government statement said: \u201cWe have previously raised the issues British citizens with Pakistani heritage experience applying for visas with the Indian High Commission in London".<\/p>\n

Political tensions between India and Pakistan have often spilled over into cricket, where the two neighbouring countries have a longstanding rivalry.<\/p>\n

The visa issues meant that Bashir, who is on his first international tour with England, was ruled out of contention for the first Test starting in Hyderabad on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first found the news out in Abu Dhabi, I did say we shouldn\u2019t fly until Bash gets his visa but that was a little bit tongue in cheek,\u201d Stokes said, before Bashir received his visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s a way bigger thing, doing that. That was probably just emotions around the whole thing.<\/p>\n

"There was never a chance that we were not going to travel around this but Bash knows he\u2019s had our full support."<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,<\/p>\n

Stokes said he was \u201cpretty devastated\u201d that Bashir has experienced these complications.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a leader, as a captain, when one of your teammates is affected by something like that you do get a bit emotional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

India captain Rohit Sharma expressed sympathy for Bashir.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel for him honestly,\u201d said Sharma. \u201cUnfortunately, I don\u2019t sit in the visa office to give you more details on that but hopefully he can make it quickly, enjoy our country and play some cricket as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

English player Saqib Mahmood, whose parents are from Pakistan, had to be withdrawn from England Lions\u2019 tour of India in 2019 after similar delays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An England cricketer\u2019s problems obtaining a visa for the team\u2019s Test series in India have prompted the British government to call for fair treatment for […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362434,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362429\/revisions\/362434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/362431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}