Kolkata, March 10: The ICC on Tuesday booked separate commercial flights for the stranded West Indies and South Africa teams after their charter flight scheduled to take off from Kolkata “ was cancelled due to logistical issues”.
“All the West Indies and South African players have been booked on individual commercial airline flights. Obviously, all can’t be booked on same airlines but ICC has taken care of individual bookings. ICC chairman Jay Shah has personally spoken and assured players of a safe journey back home,” an ICC source privy to the development told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
“It must be mentioned that Darren Sammy is already on his way home having left on Monday night,” the source also informed.The two teams that played their final games in Kolkata (West Indies in Super 8s on March 1 and South Africa on March 4 in semi-final) have not been able to fly out due to the disruption that has been caused by International airspace restrictions across parts of West Asia following American and Israeli strikes on Iran.
The situation has forced multiple airlines to avoid routes through the Gulf region. ICC’s airline partner is Emirates and they are unable to operate due to shutdown of Dubai airspace.
The restrictions severely complicated outbound travel from India towards the Caribbean and Africa, forcing cricket authorities to explore alternative routes and charter arrangements.Earlier, in a communication conveyed on Tuesday evening, both teams were scheduled to leave Kolkata on a shared charter flight to Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon.From there, the West Indies contingent was to continue onward to Antigua, while the South Africans were expected to disperse for their respective commitments.
However, the flight arrangement was called off hours before the scheduled departure because of some “logistical issues”, an official of the Cricket Association of Bengal told PTI.“As per a latest development on Tuesday afternoon the ‘chartered flight was cancelled and no further information regarding this is received’, read a message communicated to the West Indies and South Africa teams.
“Due to logistical issues the chartered flight may have been cancelled at the last minute so now maximum players are making their own arrangements,” the local official told PTI. (PTI)
