Afghanistan suffer visa glitches ahead of Under-19 World Cup

Visa glitches have delayed Afghanistan's arrival into the Caribbean for the upcoming Under-19 World Cup. This has had a knock-on effect to a bit of the pre-tournament scheduling, with their warm-up games cancelled, and those of England and UAE rescheduled.

Discussions attempting to resolve the issues are ongoing.

"We have been working together with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and relevant stakeholders to try and find a resolution to the problem and allow the team to travel," ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley was quoted as saying in an official release.

"In the meantime, we have rescheduled the warm-up fixtures to ensure the teams in the region are able to continue their preparation ahead of the start of the tournament on 14 January."

Afghanistan were scheduled to play England and UAE over two warm-up games on January 10 and 12 at St Kitts & Nevis and St Paul's respectively. England will now play UAE in a warm-up at the Conaree Cricket Centre on January 11.

The teams at the Under-19 World Cup are split into four groups of four teams, with Scotland the latest to join the competition, replacing New Zealand who withdrew in November over Covid-related quarantine restrictions.

Afghanistan are placed in Group C alongside Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea. The top two teams from the pool qualify for the quarter-finals, while the bottom two from each pool will compete in a playoff round.

As things stand, Afghanistan are set to open their tournament on January 16 against Zimbabwe in Diego Martin. This will be their seventh appearance in the Under-19 World Cup. Since first qualifying in 2010, they're made every single subsequent edition. Their best finish came in 2018 in New Zealand where they made the semi-finals.