Scotland hopeful of timely Indian visas ahead of T20 World Cup opener

executive Trudy Lindblade is confident that players of the national team, including Pakistan-origin pacer Safyaan Sharif, will get visas in time to travel to India for the T20 World Cup.

Scotland were included into the T20 World Cup following Bangladesh’s withdrawal citing security concerns despite the ICC insisting that there were no threats as per their assessment.

Scotland will open their campaign against West Indies in Kolkata on February 7.We are all committed (to) working with the ICC to make that happen,” Lindblade was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“The visa piece is always slightly unknown, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got three days or whether you’ve got 45 days. Certainly that’s been our focus in the last 48 hours: just getting those visas done so our players are all ready to go. They’re all in the middle of submitting their visas and we will be there on the ground in India as quickly as we can, so it’s just a matter of time now.” Sharif, who was born in Huddersfield to a Pakistani father and a British-Pakistani mother, shifted to Scotland as a seven-year-old.(The ICC) can only give us the assurances of the bits that they can control and, absolutely, of the bits that they control, we are working with them and obviously they’re working with the BCCI and local people on the ground there to make sure that we are getting all of that support that we need,” Lindblade said.

“So, absolutely, (they have given) the assurance that they can provide of things that were in their control. There is a team working very, very hard to not just help us, but to help 19 other teams as well that are also going to a World Cup. But we are their intense focus right now.”We [also] anticipate some support whenever we can [get it] from the BCCI,” Scotland’s head of performance, Steve Snell said.

“I don’t think we need to escalate that any further to get into the country, because you’d suggest that Scotland being invited to attend the World Cup and then not being able to get there wouldn’t be a great look for anybody.”Scotland had missed out on qualification after losing matches against Italy and Jersey at the European Regional Final last July.

“We are a team that is ranked 14th in the world. We are also a strong team that plays consistently throughout the year.” That World Cup [qualifier] for us was not how we normally play, and therefore we are just pleased to be at this World Cup… We are happy to step in, although it is unique and challenging circumstances and we absolutely recognise that.

Scotland will play warm-up matches against Afghanistan and Namibia in Bengaluru on February 2 and 4 before their opening match against West Indies in Kolkata. Their other first-round matches are against Italy, England and Nepal, with the top two teams in Group B qualifying for the Super 8s stage.