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Rohit, Dravid among those who got last-minute US visas as India vs West Indies T20Is in Florida get green light: Report
Among those who had to give last minute interviews for the visas were India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid.
The last two T20Is of the five-match series between India and the West Indies will happen in Lauderhill, Florida after members of both teams finally got their United States visas. Guyana president Irfan Ali's intervention reportedly led to some players and support staff receiving visas in the last minute.
"It was a timely and influential diplomatic effort by His Excellency," Ricky Skerritt, the president of Cricket West Indies (CWI), was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz while thanking Ali. The report further said that those without the USA visas were flown to Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana, after the third T20I in Basseterre, St Kitts ended on Tuesday night for interviews at the US Embassy.
Among those who travelled to Georgetown were India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid. There were, in fact, 14 of them from the Indian touring party who did not have the travel approvals. Meanwhile the rest of the players including Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Ravi Bishnoi, Suryakumar Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav, have reached Miami. They will be joined by the rest of the teammates on Thursday night.
"They can fly only tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. All Visa applications have been approved but passports are not to be returned until this (Wednesday) afternoon. All that the CWI could do has been done. Last night's charter to Miami, for those previously with visas, was at greater financial risk to delay it than to operate it as previously planned," further said Skerritt.
Previously, the second T20I in St Kitts on Monday was delayed by three hours after a significant delay in luggage arrival from Tarouba, Trinidad, where the series opener was held. As a result, the third T20I on Tuesday was also delayed by 1.5 hours to give players sufficient time for recovery. India are currently leading the five-match series 2-1, with the next two games scheduled back to back at the Central Broward Park, in Lauderhill, Florida, on Saturday and Sunday. India have played T20I matches at this venue in 2016 and 2019.
