Raipur
Win Projections to be updated soon
The Indian team is scheduled to return home via a charter flight on Tuesday evening after Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley indicated that the airport is expected to reopen in the “next six to 12 hours” following its closure due to a category 4 hurricane.
The T20 World Cup-winning squad, along with their support staff, some BCCI officials, and the players’ families, have been stuck in Barbados for the past two days due to Hurricane Beryl, which struck the island on Sunday evening.
“I don’t want to jump the gun, but I have been in communication with airport personnel, and they are conducting their final checks, aiming to resume normal operations promptly,” Mottley informed PTI.
“There are numerous individuals who were supposed to depart last night or today or tomorrow morning. We want to ensure that we can accommodate those individuals, so I anticipate that the airport will be operational within the next six to 12 hours.”
The Indian contingent is set to depart Bridgetown at 6pm local time and arrive in Delhi on Wednesday at 7.45pm IST, as per a source. The players will later be honored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, although the timing of the event is yet to be finalized.
Five players – Rinku Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed, and Sanju Samson – are expected to travel to Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series. The remaining squad for the series had departed from India earlier on Tuesday.
Barbados and nearby islands experienced life-threatening winds and storms on Monday. The island, with a population close to 300,000, has been under lockdown since Sunday evening.
“We have been working diligently to ensure the safety of all individuals in Barbados, including the locals and visitors who had arrived for the cricket World Cup,” Mottley stated. “We were fortunate that the storm did not make landfall. The hurricane passed 80 miles south of us, minimizing the damage on shore. However, significant damage has been sustained by infrastructure and coastal assets.
“Although it could have been much worse, the focus now is on recovery and cleanup.”
The Indian team’s departure window from Bridgetown is narrow because Mottley mentioned that “we are expecting another hurricane on Wednesday”.
