U19 World Cup: Afghanistan’s participation in doubt due to visa issues

KARACHI: Afghanistan’s participation in this month’s ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is in doubt as the team is still waiting for visas to travel to the West Indies.

The biennial cricketing event featuring future stars starts on January 14th in West Indies with 16 teams, including Afghanistan, are scheduled to take part in it.

However, due to visa issues, the fate of the Afghanistan U19 team hangs in balance.

An announcement from ICC confirmed that the Afghanistan players have still not arrived in West Indies due to delays in obtaining the visas.

“The Afghanistan squad is yet to arrive in the West Indies due to delays in obtaining the necessary visas, whilst discussions attempting to resolve the issue are ongoing,” the cricket governing body said.

ICC Head of Events, Chris Tetley said that cricket’s global body has been working together with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and relevant stakeholders to try and find a resolution to the problem and allow the team to travel.

“In the meantime, we have rescheduled the warm-up fixtures to ensure the teams in the region are able to continue their preparation ahead of the start of the tournament on 14 January,” he said confirming that Afghanistan’s warm-up matches for the Under 19 Cricket World Cup have been cancelled, and the warm-up matches for England and the UAE are rescheduled.

The warm-up matches in St Kitts and Nevis against England at Warner Park on 10 January (tomorrow) and the 12 January fixture against the UAE at St Paul’s have both been cancelled. England will now play UAE at Conaree Cricket Centre on 11 January.