The war of words between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has escalated in the last couple of days. The reason? Recently, Pakistan Cricket Board CEO Wasim Khan tried to provoke a controversy by stating that Pakistan wanted visa assurances from the ICC for the 2021 World T20 that will be held in India. Relations between India and Pakistan have been at their lowest ebb ever since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and it has only worsened in the aftermath of the Uri and Pulwama terror attacks. Wasim Khan tried to tell the ICC that Pakistan's players will not be issued a visa and according to various media reports, the ICC has not agreed with Wasim Khan.
In a report on ANI, an ICC spokesperson said, "The Host Agreement for all ICC events, including the ICC Men`s T20 World Cup 2021, provides that the host member will ensure visas are provided for all competing teams. The planning for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 in India is underway on that basis," the spokesperson said.
In response to the ICC, an unnamed BCCI official has called Wasim Khan 'ignorant'. "I think that statement of the PCB CEO stemmed from ignorance. This issue was laid to rest last year itself when the GOI (Government of India) had written to the Presidents of the IOA and the IOC on the issue. So unless he is privy to some future course of action to be taken by Pakistan that would deteriorate the circumstances drastically, it is a non-issue," the BCCI official said.
Letter of 2019
The letter which the BCCI official quoted was letter was issued on June 18, 2019, by then Sports Secretary Radhe Shyam Julaniya after a couple of Pakistan shooters were denied a visa to compete in the ISSF World Shooting championship in the national capital. The visa issue had led to the International Olympic Committee reconsidering the decision to hand India international sports events.
The letter from Julaniya, in possession of ANI, clearly stated that country of origin of athletes wouldn`t be a barrier for them to get visas to come and compete in international sporting events in the country.
"It's the policy of the government that India will hold international sporting events and will permit all qualified athletes belonging to any National Olympic Committee (NOC) recognised by IOC or any national federation affiliated to the international federation concerned to participate. Such participation of athletes shall be without prejudice to our principled positions and policies on other political matters including issues such as international recognition or otherwise of the country of origin of the athletes," Julaniya had written to Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) President Narinder Batra and marked a copy to IOC chief Thomas Bach
