Hopes for Steel shooter rest on visa process

George Fisher
George Fisher
The Steel is positive about getting the side’s star shooter into the country for the season but is still waiting for the all-clear.

The ANZ Premiership side signed young English shooter George Fisher for the upcoming season last year but is still waiting for her to arrive in the country.

The Steel side has applied for her visa to get into the country and is now waiting for it to go through the system.

Steel chief executive Lana Winders was still positive it will be allowed.

"George’s visa application is now being processed and we are hopeful of some positive progress soon so she can complete the quarantine period and join her teammates for the remainder of the pre-season," she said.

Fisher (22) was actually in New Zealand last year, playing for the England Roses in October but chose to go home instead of staying in this country.

The Steel does not start playing in the competition until April 18, although a pre-season double-header was confirmed last month against the Tactix on March 12 in Timaru.

The subject of which sports teams and players get into the country has been under the microscope in the past few days.

Though the Steel is hopeful, isolation spots are becoming hard to find and there appears to be no consistency in what side and players are allowed in.

The West Indies and Pakistan cricket sides were allowed in to play series against the Black Caps, and the Australian side will enter self-isolation this week to prepare for the twenty20 series which starts on February 22 in Christchurch.

The Highlanders have Japanese loose forward Kazuki Himeno arriving and heading into managed isolation sometime this week, and it is hoped he will be out and on the training field before the first competition game against the Crusaders on February 26.

The National Basketball League has also received approval to get its overseas players into the country and also a couple of overseas coaches.

Those approvals have frustrated the Otago Cricket Association, which is not able to get all-rounder Dean Foxcroft back into the country.

He went home to South Africa for a holiday in late March and has not been able to get back to New Zealand despite appeals by the Otago Cricket Association.

Support had also come from New Zealand Cricket, which said Foxcroft had the ability to play for New Zealand in the future.

But that held no sway with authorities who have denied Foxcroft entry into the country.

He is still being paid by New Zealand Cricket and is paying rent on a property yet can not get into the country to live in the house.

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