• Source:JND
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Pakistan cricket team was scheduled to visit Dubai ahead of the ODI World Cup 2023 for a team-bonding trip. However, their trip was canceled on Friday as the team was still awaiting visas to travel to India for the marquee event.

They were set to fly to the UAE early next week and stay for a couple of days before heading to Hyderabad ahead of their first match in the tournament against New Zealand on September 29.

The Men in Green is planning to fly out of Lahore to Dubai early next Wednesday and reach Hyderabad straight from there.

 

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As per an official, the visas are expected to arrive in time for Pakistan to travel. Notably, the application for visas is understood to have been made over a week ago.

Pakistan are the only team of the nine sides traveling to India for the World Cup and are still waiting for visas. The delay highlights the tense political backdrop against which the Pakistan team is traveling to India.

Neither team has traveled to the other's country for a bilateral series since Pakistan's trip to India for a white-ball series in 2012-13.

Pakistan have toured India once in the last ten years, but that was for the T20 World Cup in March 2016.

The recently concluded Asia Cup 2023 was the initial tournament this year that created a buzz around the possible travel exchange between the neighboring nations.

Pakistan were the dedicated hosts of that tournament but only four matches were held in their country, with India's team not given clearance to travel to Pakistan.

As a result, the majority of the tournament was played in Sri Lanka as per the hybrid model proposed by then PCB chief Najam Sethi.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, in response, floated the idea of a similar hybrid model for the World Cup according to which the Pakistan team, would have played their games outside of India, possibly in Bangladesh.

However, the Pakistani government gave clearance to the team to travel to India.

Pakistan will be up against New Zealand next Friday in their first warm-up match which will be played behind closed doors in Hyderabad because police failed to provide assurances of adequate security.

 

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Only Mohammad Nawaz and Agha Salman are the only two players in Pakistan's current squad who have traveled to India for cricket before.

The highly-anticipated clash between India and Pakistan in the ODI World Cup will be played at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14.