6 Cricket Players Unable To Travel To India Camp
[Written by Patrick Bean]
Six members of the Bermuda cricket team unable to travel to India for a two-week practice camp, will instead spend the next three days engaged in intense net training before flying to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, February 15 to take part in the ICC Cricket World Cup Challenge League play-off.
Included among the six left behind are several key members, with captain Delray Rawlins, opening batsman Chris Douglas, left-arm spin bowler Derrick Brangman, middle-order bat Tre Manders, all-rounder Allan Douglas Jr and fast bowler Zeko Burgess, who were held back from boarding last Thursday’s British Airway’s flight to England, with connections to India.
In an interview with Bermuda Broadcasting Company Cal Blankendal, the Bermuda Cricket Board’s [BCB] executive director cited Bermuda’s absence from India’s immigration e-visa web portal as the reason for five players having been rejected as British Overseas Territory passport holders.
Blankendal was though baffled by the Indian subcontinent’s most populous nation’s rejection of Rawlins, who possesses a British passport and previously performed there in 2017 as a member of the England under-19 team, scoring a century against India during the tour’s first international match.
“Ten members have gone off to India and out of a contingency, which would have been 14 players and five staff members with one coming from overseas,” explained Blankendal during an interview with Grae Minors. “We had to leave some of our team members behind in Bermuda due to visa complications.
“So, if you go on the Indian e-visa website you would see that Crown dependent territories or overseas territories can apply for an e-visa.
“You go into their application platform, click on United Kingdom, you get into the Bermuda section, you apply (and) it comes back as rejected.
“You do further investigation and you see that in the countries that are listed to apply for an e-visa, Bermuda is not listed on that page.
“So, that is Montserrat, Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands, all of the other overseas territories but not Bermuda.
“When we figured that one out we went to an external agency to do it. They applied for it as well (and) were rejected.
“We then contacted Government House and they were able to advise us to contact the High Commission of India that is the embassy in London.
“They advised us to then go back to the visa portal. The e-visa portal told us to go back to the website. We went to the international cricket council because we are going for Cricket. They have contacted the major powerhouse that is the Indian cricket council BCCI.
“They were unable to assist us, so, again, at the 11th hour we had to cancel the tickets for the six individuals, Bermuda passport holders primarily. Otherwise we would have had to default on $20,000 of ticket fees.”
Efforts were yet said to be being made to secure rite of passage to India for Rawlins, even after two denials.
“Mr Delray Rawlins’ visa application has been rejected twice,” added Blankendal. “We’ve actually submitted a third request because there’s no indication why it should be rejected.
“He has travelled to India before and is a British passport holder and there is no reason, we believe, it should be rejected.
“Now, the negative is that we do not have our full team. I’m a very positive person.
“The positive is that there are not 16 players in Bermuda. We have 10 of them actually going to the training camp in advance. “I’d rather have 10 people training in advance, than the entire team going to Malaysia two days prior. The players will depart, we’re looking to get them out there next week Thursday. They will arrive in Malaysia on the 17th. The rest of the team will arrive on the 19th.
“So those players will get an additional two days without the national team to go into the nets and train and they will also play one or two matches, one with the national team and one probably without the national team.
“We believe, in all, the preparation will be much more advanced than if everyone was in Bermuda and those that are staying in Bermuda, they will be training twice a day at the Bermuda High School for girls.
“We have our domestic coaching team that’s here on the Island that will put them through their paces and they will be training twice a day up until Tuesday, February 13th and then they will be departing on Thursday, February the 15th.”
What a mess, I mean how hard is it?
Surely a simple call with the Indian Cricket Board could have fixed this. A bit of advance planning wouldn’t have hurt, and that’s the problem when the CEO has several other commercial roles.
Priorities?