“Barbados PM: Airport Set to Open Soon for India’s Return Journey”

After the announcement by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley that she expects 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.

Earlier, Mottley gave an update on the situation here.

“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 can facilitate those persons, so I would anticipate that within the next six to 12 hours that the airport will be open,” she said.

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 working to ensure that everyone is safe in Barbados, Barbadians and all of the visitors, of course, who came for cricket World Cup. We were very blessed that the storm did not come on land.

“The hurricane was 80 miles south of us, which limited, the level of damage on shore. But as you can see, we’ve had costal, infrastructure and costal assets have been badly damaged,” Mottley said.

“It could have been a lot worse, but now is the time to do the recovery and the cleanup.”

The window to leave Bridgetown is a narrow one as Mottley revealed that “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.

“I’m sure that in spite of the passage of the hurricane, that they would have been in very, very, very good mood and spirit and to win in the manner that they won on Saturday. I think they will be floating on air for a little time,” she quipped.

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