Kabaddi team barred entry in India

Entry was barred after the team failed to provide the No Objection Certificate by the Pakistan Sports Board.

LAHORE: Pakistan Circle Style Kabaddi (PCSK) team was refused entry to India by the Pakistan Immigration Office after the team failed to provide the No Objection Certificate (NOC) by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The team members, however, were carrying valid Indian visas and a NOC by the interior ministry.

“We have a valid Indian visa and the NOC from the interior ministry. So we deemed it unnecessary to get in contact with the PSB for another one,” said the PCSK secretary Sarwar Butt. “But we will go tomorrow after taking the NOC from the PSB.”

Pakistan are supposed to play 12 matches in the Pakistan-India circle kabaddi series in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh this month.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) has claimed that there was only one official body, which was affiliated with the PSB and the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). On the other hand, the official body of India, the Amateur Kabaddi Federation Of India (AKFI) has denied extending any invitation to anyone in Pakistan.

“The AKFI is not organising any such tournament and the invitation to a fake body of Pakistan is from a fake body of India,” AKFI President Janardan Singh Gehlot told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2010.