World Cup Champions Stranded in Barbados After Hurricane, Scheduled to Depart Today

Following the announcement by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley that she anticipates the airport here to reopen in the "next six to 12 hours" due to a category 4 hurricane, the victorious Indian cricket team in the T20 World Cup is scheduled to return home on a charter flight on Tuesday evening.

Hurricane Beryl has left the Rohit Sharma-led team, its support staff, a few BCCI officials, and the players' families detained here for the last two days. The squad defeated South Africa by seven runs in the championship match, and they won the title on Saturday.

According to a source, the group is scheduled to depart Bridgetown on Wednesday at 7.45 p.m. (IST) and arrive in Delhi at 6 p.m. (local time). Prime Minister Narendra Modi would later congratulate the players, however the exact time of the ceremony is still pending.

Mottley provided an update on the circumstances earlier.

Overseeing relief efforts on the ground, Mottley told PTI, "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 to normal operations as a matter of urgency."

Many folks who were scheduled to leave last night, late, today, or early tomorrow morning are still here. And we want to make sure that we can help those people, so I would expect the airport to open in the next six to twelve hours," she stated.

On Monday, a ferocious storm and wind gusts pounded Barbados and neighboring islands. With a population of about three lakh, the nation has been under lockdown since Sunday night.

"(We have) been making efforts to guarantee the safety of Barbados residents as well as all guests, naturally, who come for the World Cup of cricket. The fact that the storm avoided landfall was a great blessing.

"The extent of the devastation on shore was constrained by the hurricane's 80 miles south of us. However, as you can see, there has been significant damage to coastal assets, infrastructure, and Mottley stated.

"It could have been a lot worse, but now is the time to do the recovery and the cleanup." There's not much time to get out of Bridgetown since, as Mottley disclosed, "we have another hurricane coming on Wednesday." She believed that after ending an 11-year title drought, the Indians, who have remained at their hotel since winning the trophy, will be in high spirits despite the lockdown.

"They would have been in a very, very, very good mood and spirit and would have won in the same way that they did on Saturday, even with the cyclone passing through. For a little while, I believe they will float on air," she joked.

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