St Vincent removes visa restrictions for cricketing nations for T20 World Cup

St Vincent: The cricketing countries will now get visa-free entry at St Vincent for the much-anticipated T20 Cricket World Cup 2024 as the government lifted all the restrictions for participating nations except Afghanistan.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who stated that all restrictions have been lifted on Wednesday, but the government will take proper safety precautions. He said that they are working to enhance the preparations for the World Cup within a regional context and allies that will host the World Cup.

Speaking at the national parliament, he asserted that some cricketing nations served with visa restrictions, so they decided to lift all those. However, the Afghanistan passport holders will require a visa to enter St Vincent and the Grenadines for the World Cup 2024.

Notably, the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines imposed visa restrictions on Nepal and Bangladesh, which are two cricketing nations. PM Gonsalves stated that the cause of imposing restriction was to manage the flow of the people who were coming out of Nigeria and Dubai through aircrafts which also included number of Indians.

He also outlined that there were a lot of Nepalese and Bangladeshis on board the aircraft that were registered, so the country decided to impose restrictions. The Cabinet removed the visa restrictions, and they also had talks with the Indian ambassador and they were dealing with that in a different way.

PM Gonsalves also talked about the aircraft which landed in Jamaica, featuring hundreds of people due to which country faced problems for providing them with accommodation.

He also noted that they are conscious of the fact that the security of their country is their utmost priority, and they are building a framework for high technical stuff and other things. He said that they are working to ensure the implementation of the proper maintenance systems through which National Sports Council would have to do work.

ICC World Cup 2024 is all set to commence on June 2, 2024, and several matches are scheduled to take place in Caribbean countries, including St Vincent, Trinidad, Barbados, Saint Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda.