The Pakistan cricket team remains the only side, out of the 9 to travel to India for the World Cup 2023, to not yet have their visas approved.
It emerged on Friday that the Indian government has not yet approved the visas for the Pakistan team to fly to India for the World Cup 2023. This meant that the PCB had to cancel the pre-World Cup team bonding trip to Dubai that they had planned earlier.
The Pakistan squad was set to fly to Dubai early next week and stay there for a couple of days before flying to Hyderabad, where they will play their first warm-up match against New Zealand, on September 29.
But now, the plans have been changed following the delay in the visa, which, at the time of writing on Saturday, have still not been approved. They will instead fly to Dubai on Wednesday, September 27, and will soon fly to Hyderabad to play in the September 29 warm-up match against the Kiwis. Their second practice game is on October 3 against Australia, also in Hyderabad.
ESPNcricinfo has reported that the application for visas was made over a week ago. Because of the political and border tensions between India and Pakistan, travelling from one country to another, for any reasons, is a tough task to get approval for from the governments of the two nations. If the cricket team of Pakistan is facing issues in the visa approval for an ICC event planned for a long time, one can only wonder how hectic the process would be for normal citizens.
Pakistan last travelled to India in 2016
The last time India hosted an ICC event was the 2016 T20 World Cup. And the last time India and Pakistan played a bilateral series was in 2013 when Pakistan toured India for ODI and T20I series. The last time the Indian team toured Pakistan was for the 2008 Asia Cup.
Recently, Team India was not given clearance to tour Pakistan for the Asia Cup. So India’s matches were staged in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan squad for the World Cup 2023: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Hasan Ali
