Maybe Sunak should stop cosying up to India.  Maybe stop issuing visas to visit the UK to Indians for three months.

The UK is weak on stuff like this.

Sunak should generally be tougher with India but he shouldn’t be getting involved in this.  If he wants to get involved with visa issues he should sort out the visas for that guy running Africa.

I think the correct move is for the ECB to boycott the test. 

India relent, grant his visa and then we don’t pick him for the second test. 

There's a wider context here where British people are not being treated equally when applying for visas to India, with British people with ancestry in Pakistan being discriminated against.

When Israel tried this sort of thing re visas for Americans of Palestinian ancestry the US shut it down and Israel had to get in line.  That's how other countries deal with it.

I remember all that talk of investment that India was making in the UK.  (Was it even going to be more than the UK DFID spend on India?)  Well, look at how Tata Steel has behaved: https://www.ft.com/content/84ca2f14-aeba-45aa-98b8-0353c013f9be

Why would Sunak get involved?

A. He is not Pak

B. Bashir picked as a net bowler 

Why would Sunak not get involved? He claims to be a massive cricket fan, he should be digging in, a video for the socials, barmy army singing in the background. They will give in anyway eventually so he can claim a win. More effective populism amongst the core voters than his awkward chat with 30p Lee.

There's a wider context here where British people are not being treated equally when applying for visas to India, with British people with ancestry in Pakistan being discriminated against.

Agreed on the wider picture but if he gets i

Involved it’ll be to sort out Bashir’s visa and not the wider problem

There is a precedent here - when SA refused entry to Basil D’Oliveira England cancelled the Tour.

They should do so now.

Can’t think why Sunak wouldn’t want to challenge India’s stance. 

#weneedatradeagreementandmywealthyinlawsdictatewhatIdo

When Israel tried this sort of thing re visas for Americans of Palestinian ancestry the US shut it down and Israel had to get in line.  That's how other countries deal with it.

The US have quite a bit more leverage over Israel than the UK has over India.

In fact, everyone in Cricket is 100% dependent on Indian money now, so watchagonnado? India could just ban him completely, and still the tour would go ahead. In the De Oliveira situation, circumstances were very different.

Dolly was one of my grandpa's favourite cricketers, lots of that generation had a soft spot for him. Unless you're specifically following cricket this isn't really breaking through, the D'Oliveira issue was a big story, the England stance was in line with public opinion.

So go ahead but only discuss this topic in any interviews? 

Yeah, because this is why we’ll get thrashed….

A bit sloppy from ECB that this wasn’t sorted out a bit more in advance. Everyone knows of the India-Pakistan visa issue.

Shoaib Bashir: England spinner granted visa to travel to India - BBC Sport

What was that test India played South Africa a while back that wasn’t recognised by the ICC as a test? 

India complained about the match referee (Mike Denness?) banning Tendulkar so they just went ahead and played anyway. 

Perhaps it was a condition of the VISA that he had to play. Why else pick 4 spinners?

I read that he didn't have the correct paperwork in place and had to return to get it sorted.

I blame the selection for not getting it sorted out well in advance 

He didn’t have the correct paperwork in place because India failed to issue it at the same time it issued visas to the rest of the touring party. 

Unusually England have been warming up in UAE and haven’t had any preparation in India. I wonder how much the knowledge that India is a pain at issuing visas to players and staff with a Pakistani heritage factored into that decision? Not that the ECB would ever admit it was a factor.