Imran Tahir claims mistreatment at Pakistan High Commission in Birmingham

What's the story?

South African leg spinner Imran Tahir claims that he was mistreated at the Pakistan High Commission in Birmingham where he had gone, along with his family, to secure his visa. The Pakistan-born spinner is part of the World XI side that will play Pakistan in a three-match T20I series at Lahore.

In a tweet, the 38-year-old leg spinner described the "painful trauma" that he and his family members had been through after waiting for five hours before being expelled by the staff at the consulate. The Lahore-born spinner claimed that he was mistreated by the staff and also thanked High Commissioner lbn e Abbas for rescuing.

Here is the tweet that posted following the incident in Birmingham:

Me with my family were humiliated & expelled from Pak High Commission earlier today when I went to get visa to play for WorldXI in Pakistan pic.twitter.com/VByiqV4oFh

— Imran Tahir (@ImranTahirSA) September 4, 2017

In case you didn't know...

Pakistan are scheduled to play a World XI led by Faf du Plessis in the Independence Cup at Lahore in three T20Is. The matches are a bid to bring back international cricket to Pakistan and will feature several international stars including Faf du Plessis, two-time World T20 winning West Indies captain Darren Sammy and several others including Imran Tahir.

World XI squad: Faf du Plessis (C), David Miller, Morne Morkel, Tim Paine, Thisara Perera, Imran Tahir, Darren Sammy, Hashim Amla, Grant Elliott, Samuel Badree, George Bailey, Tamim Iqbal, Paul Collingwood, Ben Cutting.

The heart of the matter

Tahir, who was born in Pakistan and played U-19 cricket for the country has established himself as South Africa's first-choice spinner and is currently ranked No.3 in the T20I bowlers rankings. He is one of five South Africans in the World XI squad that will take on Pakistan.

Following his tweet, Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal responded by saying that the matter will be investigated.

Imran sorry to read your post. We will have this investigated and action will be taken against those responsible.

— Ahsan Iqbal (@betterpakistan) September 5, 2017

What's next?

Now that his visa has been granted, Tahir will finally get the opportunity to play an international match in the country of his birth. The Independence Cup against Pakistan will take place in Lahore on September 12, 13 and 15 and Tahir will hope to make an impact as the No.3 ranked T20I bowler in the world.

Author's take

It is a sad state of affairs when someone is mistreated while going through the due process and that it happened to someone born in Pakistan at a Pakistan Embassy isn't a great sign. One hopes that what happened to the 38-year-old doesn't happen again and swift action is taken against the staff if there was indeed a mistake on their part.