India will say if our players come to their side of ground, visa won’t be given: Ahmed Shehzad’s comic realism on hybrid model and hypothetical border stadium | Cricket News
The suggestion had first been floated an Australian – double World Cup winner, Brad Hogg, who in his very sincere, if slightly naive thinking, spoke of his brainwave.
Hogg had suggested that India and Pakan construct a cricket stadium along the border, jointly owned or owned neither, where they could partake in cricketing contests, that were so emotive for not just both countries but the entire cricketverse.
But a day after ICC announced a hybrid model for future India Pakan games – always a neutral venues, neither travelling to the other side, former Pakan player Ahmed Shehzad built a sarcastic scaffolding along the utopian stadium structure.
He hinted that half of the ground – say, leg or off side – might not be guarded because Indians will deny Pakan fielders a visa.
Even as Pakan TV channels debated if this was a W for Pakan, or a L, Shehzad went on Nadir Ali’s podcast and offered, “There should be a stadium on the border with one gate in India and the other in Pakan. Their players can enter from there and our cricketers from here.” So far, so good.
However he was immediately bitten the reality of the situation as he added in a sullen sigh, that BCCI will not allow that. “I think the BCCI and the Indian government will have a problem with that. They will say that if our players come to their side of the ground, the visa will not be given,” he said, sarcastically.
Many in Pakan media view the hybrid model and written assurance as a tit-for-tat win, if Indians refuse to travel to Pakan, the Pakan team won’t travel either. However there is general despondency over the finality that India will not step foot in Pakan at the Champions Trophy. In his own inimitable style though, Shehzad sulked about being denied to field on one of leg or off sides.
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