T20 World Cup-wiinning Team India still stranded in Barbados? Cricketers, coaches, BCCI officials to return to New Delhi on…
The Men in Blue had defeated South Africa by seven runs in a nail-biting thriller at the Kensington Oval to bring an end to a 13-year-long wait for a World Cup title.
Team India in Barbados
The Rohit Sharma-led T20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team has not yet reached home due to Hurricane Beryl - a category 4 hurricane - which forced the island to shut its airport completely. After being stranded in Barbados for the last two days, the squad is likely to return home on Wednesday night (IST). It is said the shutdown will likely end soon as Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said she expects the airport to become operational in the "next six to 12 hours." These comments came around 4 AM (IST) on Tuesday.
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The Men in Blue had defeated South Africa by seven runs in a nail-biting thriller at the Kensington Oval to bring an end to a 13-year-long wait for a World Cup title on Saturday (June 29). However, since the victory, the Indian cricket players, their families, the support staff, and BCCI officials, including secretary Jay Shah, have been impatiently awaiting the hurricane to pass and the airports to open.
"We hope, and we're working towards later today. I don't want to speak in advance of it, but I've literally been in touch with the airport personnel and they're doing their last checks now and we want to resume normal operations as a matter of urgency," Mottley, who has been overseeing relief operations on the ground, told PTI.
"There are several people who were due to leave yet last night late or today or tomorrow morning. And we want to make sure that we can facilitate those persons, so I would anticipate that within the next six to 12 hours the airport will be open," she said.
According to a source, the Indian team is scheduled to depart Bridgetown at 6 PM local time and arrive in Delhi on Wednesday around 7.45 PM (IST). Prime Minister Narendra Modi would later congratulate the players, however, the exact time of the ceremony is still pending.
After this lengthy delay, the BCCI is considering taking a charter aeroplane on a direct route to India instead of the original plan, which called for travelling to India via the United States. But that has its own set of difficulties. There are reportedly no charter planes in the Caribbean that can hold up to 70 passengers, according to media sources. One will need to be flown from the US by BCCI.
Updated: July 02, 2024 11:59 AM IST
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