Scotland Confident on India Visas for T20 World Cup, Sharif in Focus

Cricket Scotland's CEO, Trudy Lindblade, said that the ICC can only give us assurances on the bits they can control, and they are working to ensure Scotland's team gets the necessary visas.

The team is preparing to travel to India and is focused on sorting out all logistical details. Scotland were the beneficiaries of Bangladesh's last-minute withdrawal from the T20 World Cup as the highest-ranked team that had not already qualified.

Scotland on Monday unveiled a 15-man squad set to fly to India later this week. Cricket Scotland is confident that Sharif, who was born in Huddersfield to a Pakistani father and a British-Pakistani mother before moving to Scotland aged seven, will be granted a visa in time for the team's opening match against the West Indies in Kolkata on February 7.

"We are all committed [to] working with the ICC to make that happen. The visa piece is always slightly unknown, and it doesn't matter whether you've got three days or whether you've got 45 days," Trudy Lindblade, Cricket Scotland's chief executive, said as per ESPNcricinfo.

"Certainly that's been our focus in the last 48 hours: just getting those visas done so our players are all ready to go. They're all in the middle of submitting their visas, and we will be there on the ground in India as quickly as we can, so it's just a matter of time now," he added.

"[The ICC] can only give us the assurances of the bits that they can control and, absolutely, of the bits that they control, we are working with the,m and obviously they're working with the BCCI and local people on the ground there to make sure that we are getting all of that support that we need," Lindblade said.

"So, absolutely, [they have given] the assurance that they can provide of things that were in their control. There is a team working very, very hard to not just help us, but to help 19 other teams as well that are also going to the World Cup. But we are their intense focus right now," Lindblade concluded.

The European side was added to the T20 World Cup after the ICC replaced Bangladesh with them after the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) refusal to send its team to India for the marquee tournament due to security concerns.

Scotland will be captained by captain Richie Berrington and has previously participated in six of the nine editions of the T20 World Cup (2007, 2009, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2024).

Scotland has been placed in Group C and will face England, Italy, Nepal, and the West Indies. Their opening fixture will take place on 7th February at Eden Gardens against the West Indies.

Scotland squad for T20 World Cup: Richie Berrington (capt), Tom Bruce, Matthew Cross, Brad Currie, Oli Davidson, Chris Greaves, Zainullah Ihsan, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Finlay McCreath, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Mark Watt, Brad WhealTravelling reserves: Jasper Davidson, Jack JarvisNon-travelling reserves: Mackenzie Jones, Chris McBride, Charlie Tear.

- ANI