Airlines deny Bangladesh pacer boarding pass
Bangladesh’s plan for South Africa tour suffered a jolt before it started when the airlines that carried the team to Johannesburg refused to issue the boarding pass for paceman Rubel Hossain for lack of immigration clearance. Rubel returned from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Saturday evening and could not take any flight till Monday despite having a valid visa for travelling to South Africa.
Rubel was scheduled to fly with Mushfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan and Shafiul Islam, Taskin Ahmed and Mominul Haque by an Emirates flight at 7:30pm.
Bangladesh Cricket Board chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the airline authorities could not give him the boarding pass as they did not have the immigration clearance for him.
‘There is a new a provision that the passenger needs to have some sort of ‘Okay to Board’ clearance from ultimate destination. It is the responsibility of the concerned airlines before issuing the boarding pass to any individual,’ Nizamuddin told New Age.
The BCB chief executive added that the provision is applicable for only a few countries and Bangladesh is one of them.
‘We are in touch with Cricket South Africa and hopefully, the matter will be resolved soon. He will fly to South Africa with the first available flight once the matter is resolved,’ he said.
Sources within the BCB said that officials were not prepared for this kind of issue and could not resolve it immediately because of public holidays. With Saturday and Sunday being public holidays in South Africa, BCB’s effort in this regard bore no fruit.
BCB chief executive officer denied that the matter has anything to do with the previous criminal allegation against Rubel.
Rubel’s former girlfriend actress Naznin Akter Happy made a rape allegation against him in December 2014, having also said that the pace bowler had reneged on a promise of marriage that he made while they were having an ‘intimate affair.’
A Dhaka court later in May 2015 rejected a rape case against Rubel as police said there was no evidence against the player.
‘I don’t think it is the reason for him not to get the immigration clearance,’ said Nizamuddin.
‘His name is very common. Maybe someone has some problems with the name. We are working on it with the South African authorities,’ he said.
-With New Age input
