The Bangladesh cricket team were left stranded at the Doha airport for nearly 45 minutes on their way to Harare, Zimbabwe due to a visa complication, officials said on Thursday. The team were travelling to Zimbabwe via Doha and Johannesburg and they were supposed to take their visa on arrival at the Harare airport. But the team officials came to know that they require a transit visa to use the Johannesburg airport, which caused the unexpected delay. A transit visa for South Africa was not mandatory when the Bangladesh cricket team travelled to Zimbabwe using the same route in the past. The BCB officials said they were not aware that it was made mandatory and neither the airlines on which the team were travelling informed them about it. The airlines issued the boarding passes for Dhaka-Doha-Johannesburg-Harare route from Dhaka, so no one at the BCB anticipated that could be such problem. It was brought to the notice of the team management only when they reached Doha, but it was too late. Team leader Shafiqur Rahman Munna called Dhaka for an immediate solution as the team risked missing their connecting flight. However, the BCB officials acted quickly to obtain a special permission from the South African authority. Officials said they were also helped by Qatar Airways for the visa waiver. No BCB official was ready to speak on record about the matter. The squad were scheduled to reach Harare on Thursday night. 
Posted in: News
0 comments:
Post a Comment