England Right-arm pacer Ollie Robinson has made a shocking revelation about being denied visa by the Indian authorities just before the 5-match Test series between India and England began on January 25. Although he did not blame the authorities for that, stating that it was entirely the fault of the England Cricket Board (ECB).
Ollie Robinson made these comments while speaking on his podcast called “Chatting Balls” today and mentioned this incident in light of Rehan Ahmed becoming the latest English player after him and Shoaib Bashir to be denied a visa.
While returning to India after a short break with his teammates in Abu Dhabi, Ahmed Rehan He was denied entry by Rajkot airport officials as he was carrying the same single entry visa that was issued to him when he first landed in India for the series, 2-3 days before the Hyderabad Test after an 11-day camp. in the United Arab Emirates.
After a few hours, Ahmed was given a two-day temporary visa before being assured that the correct visa would be issued to him in the next few days of the week. Before him, Shoaib Bashir went through the same thing, but his situation was much worse as he was stranded at the Abu Dhabi airport while his England teammates arrived in India.
Bashir was in Brendon McCullum’s plan to start in the first Test but arrived very late but just in time to see his team claim a 28-run victory in the first Test. And now, Ollie Robinson has made his own revelation, blaming the ECB for not letting him play in the series.
Ollie Robinson stated that he was with the England team during their camp in Abu Dhabi and would participate in the tour of India. However, a small spelling mistake on the ECB’s part meant his visa was refused and team manager Wayne Bentley revealed the information to him.
“They must have put in an initial error,” Ollie Robinson explains the real reason why his visa was denied
Robinson claimed that the ECB had misspelled some of his initial letters or just one letter and that was what ensured that he did not take the flight to India and instead returned to England.
It would have been Ollie Robinson’s first tour of India and second tour of the subcontinent, but it turns out that he will have to wait at least another 2-3 years to play a red-ball series here.
“He (the England team manager) said: ‘he’s been refused a visa’ or something like that. There was a mistake at the ECB; I think they must have put the wrong initial or a letter must have been wrong. I do not pass. He told me, ‘You are not coming to India, you will have to stay here another night, it could be two nights, it could be three nights, I don’t know how long it will take.’ Luckily, I woke up in the morning to a nice message from Wayne saying, “your visa is here.” – Robinson said via the Chatting Balls podcast.
