Fatigued Pakistan took the field against India in a SAFF Championship Group A match at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday with 17 members of the contingent arriving just six hours before the 7.30pm kick-off.
Pakistan’s India sojourn seems to be jinxed from the beginning. If the visa problem had left them stranded in Mauritius till Tuesday evening, 17 members missed the connecting flight from Mumbai to Bangalore.
The Pakistan squad was scheduled to arrive in three batches from Mumbai — 12 at 5.50am, four at 7.45am and 17 at 9.30am. But the third batch landed in Bangalore only at 1.30pm.
No wonder, the tired legs found India too hot to handle and the hosts rode Sunil Chhetri’s hat-trick to win 4-0.
The Pakistan team left Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, at 5.30pm local time on Tuesday and landed in Mumbai at 1am on Wednesday. Since they could not find 32 tickets on a single flight, the team was split into three flights from Mumbai to Bangalore.
However, due to delays at the airport, the third group missed the flight.
“We cannot change the schedule if someone misses the flight,” a top SAFF official told The Telegraph. He was reacting to a question if the match could have been rescheduled to give Pakistan some time to get acclimatised to the conditions.
It has been learnt that Pakistan did request a postponement but SAFF was not keen because that would have led to fixture congestion.
Interestingly, in August 2011, India, in a similar situation, had refused to play the opening match of the Caribbean tour after landing in Barbados hours before the kick-off.
In the post-match news conference, Pakistan’s assistant coach Torben Philip Witejewski said his team put up a brave fight despite the full team reaching the hotel less than six hours before the kick-off.
“We expected a different performance from our players. But we couldn’t change the situation. The last group arrived here at 1.30pm and so it was not easy to play. First we got the visas very late and there were a lot of problems in Mumbai with the immigration. We also had a lot of problems in Mauritius,” he said.
“But we have to cope with the situation even though our federation tried its best (for a reschedule). But I think our guys did a fantastic job.”
Pakistan cannot cry hoarse as they are themselves to be blamed for the predicament. The fixtures were announced on May 17 but the Pakistan football team got the NOC from the authorities concerned only last week. Still, the visa procedure was fast-tracked and they got the clearance on Monday.
“They have their own problems which they needed to sort out,” one source said.
