Seems like there are all sorts of problems in Pakistan cricket and Pakistani journalists are finding out that the hard way.
After around 60 of them applied for the Indian visa after getting the World Cup accreditation from the ICC, only about 6-7 of them are in India to cover the showpiece event.
The Indian government and the BCCI was roundly criticized earlier for the delay in processing the visas of the journalists due to which quite a few of them backed out.
Now, there are reports in the Pakistani media and among journalists that place the blame fairly and squarely on the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its chairman Zaka Ashraf.
Veteran Pakistani sports journalist Waheed Khan revealed some details regarding this matter on his Youtube channel.
"Seems like Pakistan cricket is in a mess. It is said that only those journalists' visas were processed who were known to be close to Zaka Ashraf or favourable to him. Over 40 journalists' visas were not processed as they were considered unfavourable on the PCB's list. It seems that PCB and Zaka Ashraf were taking a call on the matter of Indian visas for Pakistani journalists,'' Khan said.
"It is also said that Zaka Ashraf got some visas processed for his family members and his close coterie of friends,'' he added.
Khan further went on to state that there was a report on Pakistani channel Samaa TV about the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi being clueless about visiting journalists.
"Since Pakistan-India bilateral relations are not in the best of health, the status of certain Pakistani diplomats are downgraded and hence Zaka Ashraf did not even bother to meet any of them except for one gentleman,'' Khan revealed.
"The Pakistan High Commission had no idea about the Pakistani journalists who are visiting India nor did they have a clue about the purpose of their visit. It is astonishing.,'' he added.
After Pakistan lost their highly anticipated clash against India, the Pakistan cricket set-up has been on an overdrive against India.
Initially, Mickey Arthur, who is Pakistan's director of cricket, stated that the organisation of the match made it look like a BCCI event and less of an ICC event.
He further went on to say that 'the DJ not playing 'Dil Dil Pakistan' affected the team's morale and performance making him the butt of jokes on social media.
With the PCB also filing a complaint to the ICC regarding incidents that happened during the India-Pakistan match, Waheed Khan said the PCB is working on spoiling its relations with ICC and the BCCI.
"Whatever happened in Ahmedabad against the Pakistan team was unfortunate and wrong. There are no two ways about it. But the only way Pakistan could have responded to that was by their performance on the ground,''
"This complaint is not going to serve any purpose. It is just going to spoil our goodwill with the ICC and other boards,'' he added.
