Ollie Robinson fires shots at his own English Cricket Board for VISA issues with England players

England’s right-arm pacer Ollie Robinson has made a shocking revelation about his visa being denied by Indian authorities right before the 5-match Test series between India and England began on January 25th. Although he did not blame the authorities over here for that, claiming that it was entirely (ECB) England Cricket Board’s fault.

Ollie Robinson made these comments while speaking on his podcast named “Chatting Balls” earlier today and mentioned this incident in the light of Rehan Ahmed becoming the latest English player after him and Shoaib Bashir to get his visa denied.

While re-entering India from a short break with his teammates to Abu Dhabi, Rehan Ahmed was denied entry by airport officials in Rajkot as he was carrying the same, single entry visa that was issued to him when he first landed in India for the series, 2-3 days before the Hyderabad Test following an 11-day camp in UAE.

After a few hours, Ahmed was given a temporary 2-day visa before being assured that his correct visa would be handed to him in the coming days of the week. Before him, Shoaib Bashir dealt with the same but his situation was much worse as he was left stranded at Abu Dhabi airport while his England teammates came to India.

Bashir was in Brendon McCullum’s plan to start in the 1st Test but he arrived very late but just in time to see his side claim a 28-run victory in the 1st Test. And now, Ollie Robinson has come with a revelation of his own, blaming the ECB for not letting him play in the series.

Ollie Robinson stated that he was with the England team during their camp in Abu Dhabi and was set to take part in the tour of India. However, a minor spelling mistake by the ECB meant that his visa was denied and the piece of information was disclosed to him by team manager Wayne Bentley.

“They Must Have Just Put An Initial Wrong”, Ollie Robinson Explains Real Reason Why He Was Denied Visa

Robinson claimed that the ECB had put a few of his initial letters wrong or just one letter wrong and that was what ensured that he was not taking the flight to India and instead was heading back to England.

It would have been Ollie Robinson’s first-ever tour of India and second tour of the sub-continent but turns out that he will have to wait for at least another 2-3 years to play a red-ball series here.

“He (England team manager) said, ‘your visa has been denied’ or something. There was an error at the ECB – I think they must have just put an initial wrong or one letter must have been wrong. It didn’t pass. He was like, ‘You are not coming to India, you will have to stay here for another night, it could be two nights, could be three nights, don’t know how long it’s going to take.’ Luckily, I woke up in the morning to a nice message from Wayne saying, your visa is here”. – Robinson said via Chatting Balls podcast.