By Bipin Dani
Mumbai – Jan. 15 : The Indian visas for four Pakistan-born Canadian players have been delayed, according to Ranjit Saini, the Cricket Canada, President. Speaking exclusively over telephone from Toronto, he said, “this is to confirm that Cricket Canada had been waiting to have Visa processed for their Pakistani born players for several months now. Cricket Canada took a pre-world cup preparatory visits to India in November. The Visas were applied for before that. We could take these players to India and as a result our training plans have suffered. The continued lack of Visa is a source of distraction and is hurting team moral in general. CWC is making efforts but so far there is no out come”.
“The four Pakistan-born players in Canada team are : Umar Bhatti, Rizwan Cheema, Khurram Chohan and Hamza Taqiq. We went on India tour without them and lost an opportunity to train them in India”. They are the star players of our team. Rizwan Cheema was in IPL auction last, and Khurram Chauhan is a medium/fast bowler, Umar Bhatti and the replacement wicket keeper Hamza Tariq are also good players”, Saini added.
Canada will proceed with our full strength team to Bangladesh for the warm up matches and the opening ceremony and then proceed to Colombo to do the first match.
“The issue now is that after we return from WI from playing CT20, we will have only 2 days or so in Canada and then we go Dubai for preparation before heading up to Bangladesh. The problem is seen from the fact that of this is not resolved in next week or so, the team will be on the move and players can’t come back to canada for VISA processing. As such the the short window is now causing the issue to become a major problem”, Saini further added. “Cricket Canada team is currently participating in the Caribbean T20 tournament. We have played one game against Hampshire and won. They are the T20 champions from England. There is another interesting story to it. The last time we played against Hampshire was 100 years ago. And the match was drawn. Sir John A McDonald was our first PM and he had declared Cricket as canada’s national sport. 11 January was his birthday. We won this match on his birthday”, added Saini.
“I am very pleased with our young and jubilant team. They represent the Canadian image with pride and honour of a friendly and global society what Canada has become. There are a few 16 to 19 year old that are playing in this team. A well respected cricket community is in the making”, Saini signed off.