Sports Cricket Pakistan-born Khawaja gets Indian visa for Champions League T20

Melbourne, August 10, 2011 (PPI): A day after he was denied an Indian visa, Pakistan-born Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja was issued one to compete in Champions League Twenty20 next month with Indian Consulate here insisting that initial rejection had nothing to do with him being born in Pakistan.

“Mr Khawaja’s visa application was originally submitted with incomplete and incorrect documentation. This has since been rectified by Mr Khawaja, and his visa application is now under process,” a statement from the Consulate said.

Khawaja had on Tuesday tweeted that denial of visa was because he was born in Pakistan. “Indian Visa department need to sort their issues out. Refusing to let me travel to India as an Australian, because I wasn’t born here. Wow,” Khawaja had said.

Cricket New South Wales, team for which Khawaja would compete in CL T20, completed the process following intervention from Indian-born chairman Dr Harry Harinath. “We are delighted this has been settled and we thank Indian Consul-General, Amit Dasgupta for his prompt attention in resolving the matter,” Harinath was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.