It should have been the most exciting day of Shoaib Bashir's blossoming career in professional sport.
A day that dreams are made of. Instead, the 20-year-old from Chertsey, Surrey, who only made his first-class debut for Somerset less than eight months ago, was prevented from playing in his first Test match by Indian authorities.
Prevented from playing by Indian authorities who had known for over SIX WEEKS that Bashir was a member of the England squad that is in the country for a five-Test series.
The issue was Bashir's Pakistani heritage. With the relationship between the two countries getting worse, anyone with a connection to Pakistan faces an administrative slog to get a visa to visit India. And so it proved in Bashir's case.
But the idea that there could not be exemptions is ludicrous. Bashir is not 'anyone', he is an England cricketer who clearly poses no threat to national security. But, the Indian authorities said, everyone must go through the same process - in other words, it was out of the cricket’s hands. Seriously? The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is one of the most powerful organisations in the country. If they had wanted to expedite Bashir’s visa, they could have at least given it a very good go.
Instead, when Ben Stokes leads his side into the opening day of the first Test in Hyderabad, Bashir will be repacking his bags after finally getting his visa on Wednesday... 45 days since he was named in the England squad. "Shoaib Bashir has been granted a visa and is due to travel to join up with England in India this weekend," read an ECB statement.
At best, it has been a farce. At worst, it has been a case of Indian authorities flexing their muscles to show who is the boss. No wonder Stokes was fuming when the matter came to a head on the eve of the opening match. "I am pretty devastated that Bash has had to go through this," he said. "As a leader, as a captain, when one of your team-mates is affected by something like that you do get a bit emotional."
In fact, Stokes was so emotional, so furious, that his knee-jerk reaction was to keep his men out of India until the Bashir visa was sorted. Stokes explained: "When I first found the news out in Abu Dhabi (England’s training camp), I did say we shouldn’t fly until Bash gets his visa but that was a little bit tongue-in-cheek.
"That was probably just my emotions around the whole thing. There was never a chance that we were not going to travel … but Bash knows he’s had our full support."
Bashir would not have wanted to be at the centre of the furore caused by an England boycott but it is clear that Stokes remains furious at the treatment of the uncapped Somerset spinner. And it should certainly fire up the hugely promising Bashir if and when he gets to make that dream debut in the second Test next week.
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