Police hunt for missing cricket coach

The man behind a women's cricket tour is now the focus of a police investigation into people smuggling.

Ravi Sharma, who brought the Punjabi women's cricket team to England, told yesterday of his horror at the disappearance of five of the players within days of entering Britain for their tour.

However, the Standard can disclose today that Mr Sharma is now wanted for questioning by police in India and immigration officials in Britain over his alleged role in people-smuggling.

Inspector General Joginder Paul Birdi, chief of police in the Punjab city of Jalandhar where the team came from, told the Standard: "This is a very serious case which we are working on.

"For some years we have known that people were using wrestling and hockey tours to the UK, America and Canada to sidestep immigration regulations. This appears to be the first time cricket has been used."

The 57-year-old businessman's home in India has been raided and his wife and son are being sought by police.

Mr Sharma set up a business in January called Lynex Tours and Travels, with offices in Jalandhar and Bradford, to organise sporting tours of Britain.

At a college in Jalandhar - where four of the five players who went missing had previously been enrolled - students told how they were approached by Mr Sharma and told that in return for the equivalent of £2,600 he would provide a six-month UK tourist visa.

One student at HMV College said: "He said that he would get us a sixmonth visa to the UK if we were to pay him up to two million rupees. He also promised to get us a job there after the matches."

The principal of the college, Puran Prabha Sharma, said: "These so-called sporting clubs are fakes. It's illegal and it's a scam and I hope that vulnerable young people won't be tempted."

In the scam Mr Sharma was allegedly operating, the team would fly to Britain, complete their scheduled tour, and fly home to India as a group. Because of the six-month visa, the players were able to return legitimately to Britain individually, where they would stay to find work.

Sources said it was possible that some of the members of each team were genuinely travelling to play sport and did not return to Britain, adding an extra veneer of authenticity to the racket.

But when the current cricket team applied for visas, the plan hit a major problem, instead of six-month visas the players and Mr Sharma were given permission to stay in Britain for only three weeks.

It is thought that the short-stay visas forced the five women to take the drastic action of disappearing in the course of the "tour", leaving Mr Sharma calling the police in London to claim they were "missing" so that his trick would not be rumbled.

Immigration officials have not begun looking for the five because they are entitled to stay in Britain until their visas run out next month.

But they are now expected to question Mr Sharma and also trace the movements of the sporting teams he has brought to the UK. A parallel investigation in India is also under way.

Inspector General Birdi said: "We will find out how many other teams he

has taken to the UK and if so what happened to the people on them."

The use of sporting teams as a front for illegal immigration is widespread in the Punjab. The area is rich pickings for people-smugglers as it is wealthy enough for locals to be able to afford their fees but poor enough for many to want to leave.

The urge to emigrate is so great that Jalandhar has 39 "emigration consultancies", and dozens more "language institutes" double as grooming schools teaching people things such as how to dress in western countries.

But the discovery of one alleged people-smuggling racket raised serious questions for the British High Commission in New Delhi, which issued the visas to Mr Sharma on behalf of the "sports team".

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "If there is evidence of abuse of the immigration system it will be investigated and acted on."

Mr Sharma could not be reached for comment.