Pakistan only World Cup 2023 team yet to get visa for India: Report

Pakistan cricket team has been forced to make changes to their Cricket World Cup 2023 preparation plans as it is still awaiting visas to travel to India, a media report said. Pakistan had planned to travel to Dubai early next week for a team-bonding trip before leaving for India. However, due to visa delays, Pakistan has now decided to cancel their UAE plan, a report in ESPNCricinfo said. They will now fly from Lahore to Dubai on Wednesday and travel to Hyderabad from there, ahead of their first warm-up match on 29 September against New Zealand. As per the report, the applications for the visas were filed over a week ago, but Paksitan are the only team among nine to still not get visas for India which is hosting the World Cup 2023 from 5 October. Apart from New Zealand, Pakistan are also scheduled to play Australia on 3 October in a warm-up game in Hyderabad before opening their World Cup campaign with a match against the Netherlands on 6 October at the same venue. The visa delay for the Pakistan team once again underlines the political tensions between the two nations since the 2008 Mumbai attacks which has led to the suspension of bilateral cricket matches. The last time Pakistan travelled to India for a cricket assignment in the last 10 years was in 2016 for the T20 World Cup. The last time they travelled to India for a bilateral series was in 2012-13 when both nations played two T20Is and a three-match ODI series. The last time India travelled to Pakistan was in 2008 for the 50-over Asia Cup. India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan for cricket also led to the recent Asia Cup 2023 being jointly hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The tournament was scheduled to take place in Pakistan but due to India’s refusal to travel to the country, the majority of the matches were held in Sri Lanka.