Jay Shah & Rahul Dravid. (Photo Source: Getty Images)
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah has come out to help the stranded Indian media personnel in Barbados by offering them to fly back home with the Indian team on a special chartered flight from Barbados to Delhi. Barbados has been on high alert since June 30 due to the threat of Hurricane Beryl.
The Indian team won the T20 World Cup 2024 final on June 29 against South Africa by seven runs in Barbados. However, the team wasn’t able to return to India as the Grantley Adams International Airport was shut down due to the hurricane threat. Along with the team, several media personnel, who went to the Caribbean to cover the marquee event from India, have also been left stranded in Barbados. However, India Today’s Vikrant Gupta said that they will be evacuated by Shah.
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“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! The special flight will take off In a few hours and land Delhi around 4-5 Thursday morning,” wrote Gupta on his X account.
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!
The special flight will take…— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) July 3, 2024
Gupta also informed that the contingent will be arriving in Delhi at 4-5 am, where they are expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Fans are expected to flock to the airport in numbers to welcome the triumphant Indian team. The euphoria among Indian Cricket fanatics has been at an all-time high after Rohit Sharma’s men managed to end an 11-year-long ICC title drought last month.
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Meanwhile, the fans are gearing up to support Team India once again as they are set to face Zimbabwe in a five-match T20I series this month. However, the senior players won’t be featuring in the tour as Shubman Gill is set to lead a fairly inexperienced side. With stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja announcing retirements from T20Is, the Indian team is set to undergo a transition in the shortest format of the game.