Mumbai, April 24 A 12-member Indian crew and a producer, who were handling the broadcast of the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL), are stranded in Pakistan in a dilemma on whether to leave the country over an escalation in tension across the border in the wake of Pahalgam terrorist attacks that has left 26 tourists killed.
India and Pakistan have cancelled all the valid visas of the citizens travelling to the respective countries and have ordered them to leave in the next 48 hours in a tit-for-tat. The steps have also cast doubts over the crew members of the PSL broadcast though PCB officials feel the visa cancellation will not have an impact on them because of the special status of their documents.
"Though a decision about the cancellation of visas of Indian citizens has been taken it has not been implemented for the broadcast crew because an alternate arrangement too has to be made. A final decision will be communicated by tomorrow." a PCB official told IANS.
Also, five of the crew members now have residency in the UAE, so they won’t be travelling to India and therefore not be impacted by the travel restrictions. "We have sought advice from the company that hires us,” said a crew member who doesn’t want to be named. “Our visas are special, so it seems there won’t be any problem,” the crew member was quoted as saying by Telecom Asia Sport (www.telecomasia.net).
Earlier, the broadcasters of the PSL – the Trans-Asia company – had conveyed apprehensions of some of the crew members to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). “The broadcasters have been in touch with the PCB as the crew members, which also includes the producer of the broadcast, as to whether they can stay in Pakistan or should leave,” a senior PCB official told www.telecomasia.net.
PCB has, in turn, approached the interior ministry, of which their chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, is the minister, for advice. They believe the visas issued are for sports activities and will not be cancelled.
The PSL had come in trouble before when the broadcaster IMG Reliance, the Indian broadcaster who was covering the PSLI in the UAE when the Pulwama attacks happened in February 2019, withdrew as an official production partner for the event. PCB, in return, filed a compensation claim, the case of which is still pending.
The bilateral sporting ties between India and Pakistan are stalled in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Most of the cricket matches in Pakistan and the UAE have a crew from India, but in recent times, Pakistan has also hired crew from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Malaysia.
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