- Indian cricket team will depart Barbados on a charter flight.
- The team is expected to arrive in Delhi by Wednesday.
- Barbados has been under lockdown due to the hurricane.
This news arrives as the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, expressed optimism about the airport resuming operations within “next six to 12 hours” after it was closed due to a category 4 hurricane.
The hurricane, named Beryl, struck the island on Sunday night, leaving the victorious T20 World Cup team, their support crew, some officials from the BCCI, and family members of the players marooned in Barbados for two days.
“I don’t want to speak in advance of it, but I have 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 informed PTI.
“There are a number of people who were due to leave 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.”
A source indicated that the Indian team might depart Bridgetown at 6pm local time and arrive in Delhi by Wednesday at 7.45pm IST. A meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also on the agenda for the players, though the timing is yet to be determined.
Five players - Rinku Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Khaleel Ahmed, and Sanju Samson - are due to travel to Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series. The rest of the squad for this series had already left India earlier on Tuesday.
Since Sunday night, Barbados has been under a lockdown due to the severe winds and storms.
“[We have] been working to ensure that everyone is safe in Barbados, Barbadians and all of the visitors, of course, who came for the cricket World Cup,” Mottley stated. "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, infrastructure and coastal assets have been badly damaged.
“It could have been a lot worse, but now is the time to do the recovery and the clean-up.”
With another hurricane expected on Wednesday, the Indian team has a limited opportunity to depart from Bridgetown, as noted by Mottley.
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