Champions League T20: Faisalabad Wolves granted visas to play in India

Pakistan Twenty20 club champions Faisalabad Wolves have been granted visas to play the Champions League T20 in India. According to the tournament schedule, the Pakistanis will play their first match in the qualifiers against Otago Volts on September 17 in Mohali, Indian media reported Friday.

Earlier, media reports suggested that the players would be denied visas.

The Faisalabad players are currently at their training camp in Lahore and will depart for India on Saturday.

Misbah-ul-Haq, Saeed Ajmal and Ehsan Adil – who are on duty with the national team in Zimbabwe – will fly to India after the completion of the on-going series in Africa, NDTV reported.

“The visa has already been issued. The passports would be handed over as and when they come to collect it at the Indian Embassy in Diplomatic Enclave,” an official source said in Islamabad.

The Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad is a heavily guarded premises and one can enter only after numerous permissions and security checks.

The team was earlier denied visas on the ground that they faced a security risk in India.

It was feared that that if the Faisalabad Wolves made their way up in the tournament, they would be playing at different cities across India and hence security could have been a problem.

Apart from Otago, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kandurata Maroons are the two other teams that Faisalabad will face in the qualifiers.

The Faisalabad team’s participation in the CLT20 was confirmed until the LoC issues arose and that led to tensions between the two countries.

Faisalabad will be only the second team from Pakistan, after Sialkot Stallions, to take part in the Champions League. The Stallions played the 2012 tournament in South Africa, but failed to qualify for the main round.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Sep 13 2013. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.