Visa Snag Holds Up 'A' Team (18 November 1998)

18 November 1998

Visa Snag Holds Up 'A' Team

by Haydn Gill

Was it another misunderstanding or did someone foul up?

Regional cricket officials are still searching for answers after the West Indies A team was detained at an Indian airport for more than three hours on Saturday night (Sunday morning East Caribbean time).

Immigration officials at the Sahara International Airport detained the 17-man party after they arrived from Bangladesh without visas.

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) secretary Andrew Sealy, however, said yesterday things had been sorted out and the team was preparing for a three-day match against an Indian Board XI starting today.

"There was a problem with visas. The normal practice when we are touring that part of the world - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - is that the local authorities issue a group visa for the entire team on arrival," Sealy told NATIONSPORT yesterday from the WICB office in Antigua.

"Something went wrong somewhere along the way, but the problem has been solved and everybody has been issued with an individual visa."

It was a very long day for Ian Bishop's team, who caught a flight to Mumbai a few hours after completing a three-day match against Bangladesh.

On their arrival, officials tried unsuccessfully to contact Chief Minister Manohar Joshi to have the situation resolved.

They were able to get in touch with Commissioner of Police Ronnie Mendonca, but the team was only released after the chief executive officer of the Board of Cricket Control in India gave a written undertaking that the visa formalities would be completed within two working days.

NATIONSPORT also learnt that vice-captain Sherwin Campbell missed most of the Bangladesh leg of the tour because of bronchia brought on by the effects of tear-gas which authorities used during curfew hours.

He has recovered and will captain the West Indies "A" today in one of two warm-up matches before the first "Test" against India A starting on November 28.

Reon King, Wayne Philip and Neil McGarrell, all of whom missed the three-day match against Bangladesh, are also in the team. They replace captain Ian Bishop, Carl Tuckett, Courtney Browne and Floyd Reifer.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)