KARACHI: Mohammad Amir, Pakistan’s bowler, is yet to receive his Ireland visa, which will prevent him from entering the nation for Friday’s opening three Twenty20 International matches.
The 32-year-old is included in the 18-man national team squad for the Ireland series and the subsequent four games against England. He announced his retirement from international cricket in March in order to play in the T20 World Cup this year.
However, when the rest of the Pakistani team took a Monday flight to Dublin, Amir was left waiting in Lahore. The cricket board of the nation stays in close communication with its equivalent in Ireland.
A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) representative told Dawn on Wednesday, “We are in regular contact with the Cricket Ireland officials over the matter and they have told us that Amir’s visa is still in process.”
After Amir decided to make himself available for Pakistan in order to increase the team’s chances of winning the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the United States and the Caribbean next month, he was called back to the national camp.
Pakistan will play its final warm-up matches before the T20 extravaganza, which will begin with a match between Babar Azam’s team and co-hosts the United States on May 14 against Ireland and May 22–30 against England.
Dawn is aware that the PCB is still holding out hope that Amir would be given the visa; nevertheless, in the event that this is not the case, the bowler will be flown straight to Leeds, where Pakistan will play their first Twenty20 match against England.
Amir, who currently resides in the UK temporarily, played in Ireland’s first-ever Test match in 2018. The Irish board claims that the department of foreign affairs in Ireland is run independently, and CI has informed the PCB that it is in communication with it.
PCB officials, on the other hand, are baffled by the circumstances and believe that a member cricket board should be in charge of making sure visiting team players don’t run into problems with obtaining visas.
Following the team’s fitness camp in the nation’s military academy in Kakul in March, Amir and the other members of the Pakistan contingent applied for the visa.
Dawn enquired about the matter, but CI did not reply.
