By IANS,
Dhaka : A prominent daily newspaper here has blamed the Indian High Commission for the “inexplicable delay” in issuing visas for the India-Pakistan World Cup semifinal at Mohali Wednesday.
The Daily Star said the visa arrived only Tuesday afternoon, by which time no flight out of Dhaka was available.
The sports editor wrote: “As many of you will know, the task of applying for an Indian visa is a long and arduous process. Knowing this, we planned well in advance.
“We apologise again for not being able to give our readers the best possible coverage, but rest assured that this was at no fault of our own; we had the best intentions at heart.”
“One would have thought that a tri-nation World Cup would be the first steps to greater regional integration. In truth, we already have a reporter in Colombo for the New Zealand-Sri Lanka semifinal and he had no issues with visa processing.
“However, the draconian measures of the Indian high commission has prevented our reporter from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and, more importantly, deprived our thousands of readers from first-hand coverage,” the newspaper said.
The India-Pakistan cricket match will be witnessed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani.