India will have to wait further to welcome their heroes as Rohit Sharma’s T20 World Cup-winning team’s return got delayed. About 70 people of the Indian contingent, including the cricketers, the support staff, their families and BCCI top officials, have been stuck in Bridgetown and Barbados for the last three days. They became world champions by beating South Africa in the final on June 29 (IST) but have not been able to return home due to Hurricane Beryl.
The Barbados airport remained closed for two days. It became functional only on Wednesday morning (IST) but the Indian team will have to wait further to leave the island. According to Sports Tak, the special charter flight arranged by BCCI, which was supposed to reach the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados at around 3 am on Wednesday (IST) to take the Indian contingent out, will now reach about four hours later.
The original plan was to take a flight to the USA from Barbados and then fly to India via the UAE, but after the hurricane caused a two-day delay, the BCCI decided to arrange a charter flight to ensure the entire team and their families reached home together. Because of the size of the Indian contingent, the flight had to be arranged from the USA, which is believed to have caused the delay.
The contingent was expected to leave Bridgetown at 6pm (local time) and land in Delhi on Wednesday at 7.45pm (IST) but according to Sports Tak, the Indian team is now likely to reach New Delhi by 5 am on Thursday.
“It’s coming home,” the BCCI wrote on X at 8:30 am on Wednesday, suggesting that the team might finally be ready to leave Barbados.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will later felicitate the players, but the schedule of that event has not yet been finalised.
Life-threatening winds and storm lashed Barbados and nearby islands on Monday. The country, with a population of close to three lakh, has been in lockdown since Sunday evening.
“(We have) been working to ensure that everyone is safe in Barbados, Barbadians and all of the visitors, of course, who came for cricket World Cup. We were very blessed that the storm did not come on land.
“The hurricane was 80 miles south of us, which limited, the level of damage on shore. But as you can see, we’ve had costal, infrastructure and costal assets have been badly damaged,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said.
