‘Coming home’: Special flight with T20 WC champs takes off from Barbados

After being stranded in Bridgetown for three days due to a Category-4 hurricane, the T20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team finally departed for Delhi aboard a charter flight on Wednesday (July 3).

The Air India special chartered flight AIC24WC — Air India Champions 24 World Cup — took off from the Grantley Adams International Airport around 4.50 am local time (2.20 pm IST) on Wednesday and will land in Delhi around 6.20 am (IST) on Thursday.

Flight arranged by BCCI

“Coming home,” posted India captain Rohit Sharma on Instagram, posing with the trophy along with teammate Suryakumar Yadav in the aircraft before it took off.

Teammate Yuzvendra Chahal also posted a photo on X. 

The Indian squad, its support staff, the players’ families, and some board officials are aboard the flight along with members of the travelling media contingent. The flight has been arranged by the BCCI.

The Rohit Sharma-led side won the title after pulling off a thrilling seven-run win over South Africa in the final on Saturday.

Departure delayed

The Boeing 777, which took off from New Jersey, USA, on July 2, landed in Barbados around 2 am local time and the airport staff in Bridgetown stated that they had not seen a bigger plane land at the Grantley Adams International Airport, which resumed its operations on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Indian team was scheduled to leave around 6 pm local time on July 2 and arrive at 7.45pm (IST) on Wednesday but the departure was delayed as the plane landed late in Bridgetown.

Felicitation plans

The players are set to be felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi within hours of returning to the country. Plans are also afoot to have a road-show in Mumbai to honour the triumphant team, which ended a trophy drought of 11 years.

Hurricane Beryl is now headed towards Jamaica.

(With agency inputs)