Oh dear, visa problems again. Efforts to promote the English Premier League in India — something that has the support of David Cameron — have suffered a setback because of the alleged mean spirited behaviour of British visa officials.

A Calcutta football fan, who had won a competition to be flown on an all expenses paid 'once in a lifetime trip' to see Liverpool play Manchester United in a home game at Anfield last Sunday, had to be left behind because he could not get a UK visa in time.

Carlsberg, the Danish beer manufacturer which is trying to promote football in India after signing a three-year sponsorship with the English (Barclays) Premier League, intervened to try and help Prasad Kumar Basu but to no avail.

However, three other winners — Gaurav Chopra, 34, from Delhi; Arvind Balakrishnan, 34, from Bangalore; and Rohit Shringare, 32, from Mumbai — declared themselves 'in heaven' after witnessing Liverpool beat Manchester United 1-0.

The competition, in which football fans were invited to record 'innovative cheers' appropriate for watching a match, was announced by Carlsberg on its Facebook page. This was visited by 80,000 followers. An internal Carlsberg jury then picked four winners from the '4,000 plus' followers who submitted their audio entries.

'Basu applied for his visa in Calcutta with two and a half to three weeks in hand — which is in good time,' said Carlsberg's marketing director in India, Subodh Marwah.

'We tried everything (to help) — it is very disappointing for him and it is also very disappointing for us. It would have been great for us to have had him as part of the group; now that is the representation (West Bengal and eastern India) we are missing. It is extremely important (part of the country).'

According to Marwah, more and more people are watching the English Premier League. 'Cricket is followed by 200 million people in India so that is the potential.'

As the game ended in a packed Anfield with emotions running high among the Liverpool fans, Gaurav, a contract manager with Accenture, declared: 'Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!'

Arvind, an HP software engineer who had taken to holding aloft his Liverpool scarf in typical tribal fashion, said: 'It's a total dream come true.'

Goal Rush

• 

  Club icon: Ian Rush

Ian Rush, now 51, is a Liverpool legend, having scored 346 goals for the club, a tally that has yet to be overtaken.

Rush, who is a roving ambassador for Liverpool Football Club, is optimistic about the game's future in India which he told me he had visited twice in the past 12 months.

He held out the possibility of coaches from the football academy in Liverpool travelling to India to train local counterparts. 'No good (for Liverpool FC) going out there for one week and that's it. You have got to leave a lasting thing there.'

Rush said that players in India and in the Indian community in the UK had natural talent that was superior to that possessed by the native British. 'But what the British people have is maybe mental toughness. You can't start from the top. You have to work from the bottom, right from the grassroots.'

Prakash party

• 

  Billionaire boys: (From left) Usha Mittal, Prakash and Seema Lohia, Lakshmi Mittal, his daughter and granddaughter

One of the most lavish Indian parties witnessed in Britain perhaps over the past decade has been hosted by a billionaire businessman, who was born in Calcutta and did his schooling in the city before emigrating to find fame and fortune elsewhere.

Remembering times past, Sri Prakash Lohia said: 'I was born in Calcutta on August 11, 1952 — it was a nice place. I did my higher secondary there.'

Lohia recently hosted the mother of all parties to mark his wife Seema's 60th birthday and their 40th — ruby — wedding anniversary.

'My wife goes to Calcutta because one of her sisters is there,' confided Lohia.

We have high hopes of Lohia, who has bought a mansion in Mayfair and intends spending half the year in London.

Lohia, who has been based in Singapore, is seriously big in the world of polyester. His company, Indorama — turnover $10 billion with 26,000 employees in 22 countries — is headquartered in Indonesia and makes the resin used in manufacturing plastic bottles for Coco Cola, Pepsi, Evian and the like.

Lohia is an understated, soft-spoken man who pointed out: 'Every third (plastic) bottle in the world is from our resin.'

Lohia is on the Forbes global rich list with a net worth of $3bn. When he travels on business or on vacation with his family, he does not have to worry about excess baggage, possibly because he has his own Gulfstream jet. And when he wishes to relax, he can always unwind on the Sea Pearl, his 200ft yacht, although admittedly it is used rather more by his children.

Taking centre stage at the celebrations were the Lohias' Wharton-educated son and heir, Amit, his wife, Aarti, their children, Aria, 8, and Sohum, 4; and the Lohias' daughter, Shruti, her husband, Vikram Hora, and their children, Eshana, 5, and Suhana, 2.

'London is a very central point to manage or grow the business from here,' added Lohia. 'My son also wants to move here from next year.'

Calcutta ties

Sri Prakash Lohia's wife, Seema, happens to be Lakshmi Mittal's younger sister. In fact, the steel tycoon's family turned up in force for the Lohia party. Lakshmi's younger brother, Pramod, was there, too, plus their father, Mohan Lal Mittal, the grand old man of Indian steel who began it all once upon a time in Calcutta.

People in Calcutta may well wonder why its young men do so well only when they leave the city. Mamata Banerjee may also ponder whether there is anything she can do to encourage Lohia to invest a little of his fortune in West Bengal.

Juvenile crime

• 

  Horror story: CCTV grab of James being led away by his killers

The horrific case which caused the nation to agonise over how to deal with juvenile offenders occurred in 1993. Two boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 10, separated a two-year-old toddler, James Bulger, from his mother in a shopping centre near Liverpool, took him to a disused railway line and smashed his head in — just for the sheer pleasure of murdering him.

Thompson and Venables, the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history, were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released on a lifelong licence in June 2001. In 2010, Venables was returned to prison for violating the terms of his licence of release. Venables, now 31, was released again last week and given a new identity for the fourth time. There are fears he will re-offend.

Tittle tattle

Greg Dyke, the new chairman of the Football Association, has set a new goal: he wants England to win the World Cup in 2022.

Here comes the shock statistic: only 32 per cent of the players in the English Premier League are now English, compared with 72 per cent in 1992.

The IPL should be warned.