T20 world Cup 2024: Team India’s return delayed! Here is the revised date and time
Rohit Sharma and team, stuck at Barbados, pic:x
Xtra Time Web Desk: The Indian cricket team's return home has been delayed due to the late arrival of their charter flight from New Jersey to Barbados. Rohit Sharma's men, fresh off their T20 World Cup 2024 victory over South Africa on 29th June, Saturday, were originally scheduled to depart for India on 30th June, Sunday. However, the threat from Hurricane Beryl forced the Barbados government to shut down the airport, cancelling all flights.
Reports on 3rd July, Wednesday morning (India time) indicated further delays in the team's departure. The players are now expected to land in Delhi on 4th July, Thursday morning. Around 12:00 PM IST, the flight is destined to bring the Indian players home landed in Barbados, with ANI news agency sharing pictures from theXtra airport.
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BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla revealed on 2nd July, Tuesday that the players were set to fly to Delhi on 3rd July Wednesday evening (local time) after being stranded in Barbados for three days due to the hurricane.
"Thank God Team India is flying back from Barbados this evening to Delhi. They will be reaching tomorrow evening. They were stuck for three days there because of the massive hurricane. @BCCI has made all arrangements for the safe flight of players back home. BCCI secretary @JayShah himself is monitoring the whole situation," Shukla posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
However, the delay in the arrival of the charter flight extended the Indian team's stay even further.
Team India's Flight Status:
An Air India special charter flight, named AIC24WC -- Air India Champions 24 World Cup -- is set to bring back the Indian squad, its support staff, the players' families, some board officials, and Indian media, who have been stranded due to Hurricane Beryl. The flight, which departed from New Jersey, USA, on July 2, is expected to land in Barbados around 2 am local time.
Watch here:<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a> | A special flight of Air India lands at Barbados Airport. Team India will fly back to the country on this flight. <a href="https://t.co/5q8NaiIJGP">pic.twitter.com/5q8NaiIJGP</a></p>— ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1808383957073027369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to the revised schedule, the flight is now expected to take off from Barbados at 4:30 am (local time). It will have a 16-hour flying time to reach Delhi, where the team is expected to land on Thursday at 6 am (IST), provided there are no further delays. The Grantley Adams International Airport resumed operations on Tuesday. Initially, the Indian team was scheduled to leave around 6 pm local time on July 2 and arrive at 7:45 pm (IST) on Wednesday.
The Rohit Sharma-led side clinched the title with a thrilling seven-run win over South Africa in the final on Saturday.
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Jay Shah arranges special plane to rescue stranded Indian media in Barbados:
Hurricane Beryl disrupted flight operations in Barbados on Sunday night, delaying the return of the T20 World Cup-winning Indian team from the Caribbean. Along with Team India, a large contingent of Indian sports journalists covering the tournament found themselves stuck due to the storm.
According to tweets from journalists on the scene, Secretary Shah swiftly intervened upon learning of their predicament. The media contingent is now set to fly home on the same flight as Team India, with journalist Abhishek Tripathi reporting that they are expected to reach New Delhi around 6 AM on Thursday.
“Special thanks to @JayShah for taking the initiative and ‘rescuing’ stranded Indian media in Barbados. As a gesture, the 20-odd media contingent have been offered to fly out with the Indian team on the special chartered flight from Barbados to Delhi!” Aajtak’s managing editor Vikrant Gupta wrote on X. “The special flight will take off In a few hours and land Delhi around 4-5 Thursday morning”
