Team India's return journey: Barbados PM expects airport to open in few hrs

The T20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team might be able to fly home on Tuesday evening after Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said she expects the airport here to become operational in the "next six to 12 hours", ending the shutdown forced by a category 4 hurricane.

The Rohit Sharma-led squad, its support staff, some BCCI officials, and the players' families have been stranded here for the past two days due to hurricane Beryl. The team won the title on Saturday after defeating South Africa by seven runs in the final.

"We hope, and we're working towards later today. 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," Mottley, who has been overseeing relief operations on the ground, told PTI.

"There are a number of people who were due to leave yet last night late or today or tomorrow morning. And we want to make sure that we