Visa denial of Davis Cup player by Iran irks Bangladesh

(Reuters) - Bangladesh's tennis authorities on Sunday said they will lodge a complaint against Iran after one of their players was denied a visa for a Davis Cup tie. A four-member Bangladesh team left Dhaka for Tehran on Sunday to participate in the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Zone-III, to be held in the Iranian capital from April 25 to 28. Bangladesh said they applied for visas for four players and a non-playing captain for the competition, but the Iranian embassy in Dhaka issued visa only for three players - Amal Roy, Henry Prethul and Ranjan Ram. Bangladesh' Dipu Lal was denied a visa for reasons unknown to the Bangladesh authorities. "We had contacted the Iranian embassy several times to know why he was not given visa, but did not get any answer," Shahriar Alam, the president of the Bangladesh Tennis Federation told reporters. Local media speculated Dipu was not granted a visa as his elder brother Shibu Lal, also a tennis player, is a U.S. citizen. The ITF punished Bangladesh in 2010 after an Israeli player was denied a visa for an age-group tournament in Dhaka in February that year. Bangladesh, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, had been fined $2,500 and Bangladesh's right to host two ITF tournaments was cut to one for the visa denial. "If we can be punished for not granting a visa to an Israeli player, I think Iran also should be penalised for doing the same thing with us," said Shahriar. (Reporting by Azad Majumder; editing by Martyn Herman for any query please call +8801817030827 or email iashayaan@gmail.com)