A question of responsibility - Beyond the Test World at Cricinfo

The same people who were lambasting the ICC for not ensuring Sierra Leone were able to play in Canada have been quiet over the fact that almost a dozen players from Afghanistan and Uganda took the opportunity of playing in Toronto to abscond and seek political asylum. All those individuals have done is ensure it will be even harder for players for some countries to take part in future events.

In fairness, the ICC has not helped itself in the past with its posturing when the British government barred Zimbabwe officials. But that was a bigger fish in a bigger pond.

The reality here is it is down to each country to ensure its own arrangements are in place. It cannot be the responsibility of the ICC to chase up every visa application and transit visa to make sure they are all in order. It is not - and should not be - the job of the ICC, or any sporting body, to tell countries who they should let in or not.

The boards get good money from the ICC and it is not unreasonable to expect those boards to show a higher degree of professionalism in the way they handle things. Too often, sides are selected at the last minute, paperwork is left until far too late in the day, and officials are happy to heap the blame on embassies and consulates.

I chased up one such instance not too long ago where a board was making a great song and dance about visa delays meaning it was shut out of an event. It turned out that it had spoken to the embassy months before the event and been given clear guidelines, including the key one that it needed 14 working days for visas to be processed. In the event, the applications - more than half of which were wrongly completed - were submitted five days before they were needed. There are two sides to every story.

In short, some boards need to be more professional and to take responsibility for their own affairs. Most manage it quietly and efficiently. It is not for the ICC to mollycoddle the few who can’t get their acts together. Martin Williamson

There are indeed (at least) two sides to every story. One side that I have heard in recent times is the one that Martin promotes here, i.e. it is all the fault of the incompetent boards and if only they weren't such a bunch of halfwits these things would never happen. That in my view is as simplistic and unhelpful as the one that goes, it is all the ICC's fault and they should sort visas out for everybody, which is also nonsense. What is irrefutable is that this is an issue which is having a negative effect on ICC organised tournaments. If I was in an organisation where extraneous factors were messing up my business, I would not just throw my hands up and say, "oh well, it is somebody else's fault" I would try and get to the root of the problems and see how I can help sort them out. That may mean looking at where certain tournaments are held, or being more involved in countries' tournament preparations. To do nothing would be an abdication of responsibility by the ICC in my opinion

Roland put it nicely. ICC should play its role as a big brother rather than follow the smell of the money? as it has been the case recently. Once the visas are obtained then the respective Board should be made responsible and if the incident like Afghanistana nd Ugada occurs then their Board should be punished heavily so it does not happen again. It is also very crucial to choose a place where people and sport is welcome equally. ICC should solve the problem rather than passing the buck on someone else.