Still no India visa for Team Pakistan Cricket, PCB forced to cancel Dubai trip
The Pakistan Cricket Team has faced a huge setback as their pre-World Cup team bonding trip to Dubai has been cancelled because of delays in obtaining visas to travel to India. Initially, the Men in Green were scheduled to fly to the UAE next week for a brief stay before heading to Hyderabad for their first warm-up match against New Zealand on September 29. However, these plans have now been cancelled, and the team will instead travel to Karachi and then fly to Hyderabad next week.
Out of the nine teams that are going to travel to India for the World Cup, Pakistan is the only team that is still awaiting their visas. This delay underscores the intricate and strained political environment that surrounds the team’s journey to India. Citizens of both countries face highly restricted travel between them due to the challenging and often futile process of obtaining visas.
This upcoming ODI World Cup marks the first visit of Pakistan to India since 2012–13. This particular tour was exceptional, as it took place during a period of strained relations between the two countries following the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Pakistan has only toured India once in the past decade, and that was for the T20 World Cup in March 2016.