
Team India is all set to return home after their victorious T20 World Cup campaign on Thursday (July 4) after the Barbados airport opened for traffic. After winning the T20 World Cup in Barbados on Sunday (June 30), players and families of Indian players along with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials wereleft stranded in the island nation due to Hurricane Beryl. However, the latest update states that the Indian team and the rest of the members will likely return home in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Earlier it was anticipated that a charter flight will take off from the Barbados airport in the early hours of Wednesday and will fly out directly to New Delhi. However,at the time of writing the Indian team had not taken off from the Grantley Adams International Airport. It will be approximately a 15-16 hour journey carrying the players, their families, and the BCCI officials including Secretary Jay Shah, President Roger Binny and Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar.
Considering the India team leaves Barbados during the daytime, their potential arrival back in the nation could see them land at around 4 AM IST on Thursday.
"We just need to make sure that when we do our assessment, everything is clean and safe so that we can welcome our passengers because, as you can appreciate, after the all-clear is given by the officials, which it has, then our team needs to come in and do their assessment so that everyone else can have their operations run as smoothly as possible," an airport official told Barbados Today news portal.
Considering players land on Thursday morning, aroad show in New Delhi could take place later in the day withall members of the T20 World Cup winning squadwill be honoured.A formal dinner with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will follow the same evening along with other officials. Earlier, the dinner with the PM was planned for Wednesday had they jetted off early from the hurricane-affected Barbados.