![]() Imagine, for a moment, if the roles were reversed. The demeaning of one of their players for reasons not of his making should be treated as an affront to them all. ![]() Short of Ben Stokes marching into the visa department on Bashir’s behalf, the one powerful recourse he has left is to delay the series, to demonstrate that England will not be subservient to the world’s most powerful cricketing nation. This is indefensible, and it demands to be met with the strongest response. India has effectively concocted a method of determining which players can and cannot play for England based on their race. The significance of this moment can hardly be understated. It is a shameful humiliation of a blameless player, and one that his England team-mates should punish in Hyderabad by refusing to take to the field. And so, on the eve of the proudest moment of his young career, the rookie off-spinner is stranded in diplomatic limbo. The only plausible explanation is that Narendra Modi’s fiercely pro-Hindu regime is making an example of a British Muslim of Pakistani ancestry, one variable over which he has no control. His paperwork has been in the hands of Indian bureaucrats for more than six weeks. Forget the notion that Shoaib Bashir’s visa hold-up is the upshot of some unfortunate clerical oversight.
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