Pak players get India visa but not Modi's IPL nod

Four Pakistan players with existing Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts were granted visas by the Indian government on Thursday but the League's commissioner Lalit Modi said they could still not play in the tournament's third season next March because they had missed the December 7 deadline to submit documents.

The players in question are Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal of Rajasthan Royals, Umar Gul of Kolkata Knight Riders and Misbah-ul-Haq of Bangalore Royal Challengers. Gul, Misbah and Akmal were granted visas by the Indian High Commission in New Zealand, where they are currently doing Test duty, and Tanvir by the Indian mission in Islamabad. The status of Abdul Razzaq, who had reportedly signed with the Kolkata franchise, is still unclear.

"A deadline is a deadline whether it is by a couple of hours or couple of days," Modi said. "Our trading finalisation window closed two days ago, and yesterday all the teams were required to submit their replacement strategy for players who weren't part of IPL III," he said, not budging from the stand he had taken two days ago when he announced that no Pakistan player would be part of the next event.

Slim chance

While chances of the participation of these four players with existing contracts remained slim, a few other players from across the border stand a better chance to play in the event via the IPL's annual auction if any of the eight franchises show interest in them.

"Currently, these four players cannot be allowed even for the auction. I don't know where they fall in terms of replacement strategy, I will need to check the rules. But there are a number of Pakistan players who want to participate, like Shahid Afridi for example. If these players get their visas and other papers sorted by January 1, they can enter the auction pool. I have spoken to Minister Shashi Tharoor and he has assured me that the Pakistan players will get visas," Modi said.

Asked if the move to bar the four players was unfair to them, Modi said he was looking at the bigger picture. "We have a system in place and we can't abuse it. Everybody was given a fair chance to go out there and present their NOCs and visas. Since these players missed the deadline, the replacements have signed new contracts. Now we are bound by contractual obligations," he said.

Modi said Bangalore Royal Challengers had replaced Misbah with Roelof van der Merwe, Kolkata Knight Riders had brought in Charl Langeveldt for Gul, while Rajasthan Royals, who played Akmal and Tanvir in the first IPL, had signed up Johan Botha. These replacements had all played in IPL II in South Africa.