Usman Khawaja Says India Denied the Australian Cricketer Visa for Being Born in Pakistan

Usman Khawaja, Australia’s up and coming batsman, has run into some controversy pertaining to his visa to travel to India for the Champions League Twenty20 2011. He claims it is his Pakistan connection that has come in the way.

Khawaja is an angry young man at the moment. His application for an Indian visa has been denied and he is miffed enough that he is exposing India’s reservations. On Twitter, he launched into the Indian authorities. He says it is not so much a case of Khawaja not being born in Australia but rather being born in India’s quarrelsome neighboring country, Pakistan.

Khawaja has been rated as the future Australian batsman and the fact that he was born in Pakistan but raised in Australia was never hidden. However, Khawaja claims that it has worked against him when it came to travelling with his team, the New South Wales Blues, for the Champions League Twenty2011 where the team has a direct entry into the main draw of the tournament that will be played in two parts in the form of a qualifier.

Khawaja claimed:

Refusing to let me travel to India as an Australian, because I wasn't born here. Wow

The first Muslim cricketer to represent Australia, Khawaja played for Australia, making his Test debut in the fifth match of the Ashes earlier in the year. Khawaja also plays for Derbyshire in England’s country cricket circuit. However, his name on the list of potential players who will travel to India for the Twenty20 league has hit a rough patch with the Indian High Commission in Australia. While Khawaja is angry by the procedural delays and the plausible reasons behind it, Cricket Australia are more confident that the matter will be resolved.

Khawaja has been a stand out cricketer, not necessarily for his religious faith or his place of birth, for being one of the talented Australian cricketers spotted on the horizon as Australia find themselves in a tough transitional scenario where several former Australian cricketers have retired after a great run and the Australian selectors have played musical chairs with the available personnel without really resolving solutions to key positions in the team. The young Khawaja will be looking for more opportunities to represent the Australian cricket team although it was benevolence that gave him the opportunity through injury.

Although it is not certain yet if Khawaja will make the fifteen member squad for the New South Wales Blues team, that his visa is stuck in the process has not helped his cause either. The NSW Blues team won the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 in 2009. Australia are entitled to field their top two Twenty20 teams as a result of the Big Bash competition in the CLT20 and with New South Wales Blues having qualified once more, it would be tremendous opportunity for the likes of Khawaja to make themselves household names internationally if they are able to grab these opportunities. Previous editions have also revealed how talent revealed has been snapped up for huge sums in the IPL auctions as was the case with Kieron Pollard who represented the Trinidad and Tobago team and has gone on to sign several more lucrative Twenty20 endorsements including playing for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL.