AHMEDABAD, May 20: For cricket enthusiasts, what could symbolise frustration more than a fan with a free ticket to a World Cup match but unable to reach the venue? Answer: Two fans in the same predicament.Meet Munirmiyah Shaikh and Mehmudali Saiyed of Ahmedabad, who won free tickets to a World Cup ticket match - travel, food, and boarding expenses paid - but have been denied visa to the United Kingdom, where the matches are being held.Shaikh, who lives in the Jamalpur area, took part in the `Britannia Khao World Cup Jao' competition, and collected enough biscuit wrappers to ``score 100 runs'' by the terms of the contest. This entitled him to a booklet with a patch, that on scratching would reveal whether he had won a prize or not. Shaikh was lucky with the scratch test.Saiyed, on the other hand, had to work for his prize. He sold 24,000 bottles of Pepsi, which entitled him to the trip as part of the cola company's sales-promotion campaign for dealers.But the British High Commission, Mumbai turned down the visa applications of both prize winners. Shaikh's application was turned down as he was unable to present evidence for his declaration that his monthly income was Rs 1.5 lakh and that he owned a department store. And Saiyed's declared monthly income of Rs 9,500 was too low for the commission officials to be convinced that he wouldn't try to keep on staying in the United Kingdom.Says Saiyed, ``Never in my life did I even dream about a trip abroad. So winning the free trip to watch a World Cup cricket match brought me great joy. Now, I feel shattered!''Shaikh is all the more upset as his name appeared in newspaper advertisements put out by Britannia congratulating him as the first winner. At Nariman Point in Mumbai, the company put up a hoarding showing cricketer Rahul Dravid congratulating him on winning the prize.Says Shaikh, ``I never met Rahul Dravid, of course. It was a computer generated image using my photograph and that of Dravid.''Both Brittania and Pepsi are firm that they are not responsible for obtaining visas for the visit abroad and that they had made this clear in the contest and sales-promotion rules. Pepsi spokesman Deepak Jolly says, ``Out of a total 120 winners selected by us, only a few were denied visa. And we are still trying heart and soul to felicitate them.''And Britannia vice-president Vikram Kaushik says, ``The number of prize winners denied visa is negligible. It is up to the prize winners to satisfy the High Commission officials. The officials have their own style of judging people.'' So in what position does that leave unlucky winners like Shaikh and Saiyed? Like the big-hitting batsman caught at the ropes.
