Hurricane Beryl leaves Indian cricket team stranded in Barbados after T20 World Cup win
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and India’s superstar cricket team have been stranded in Barbados as the Caribbean island braces for the “life threatening” force of a Category 4 hurricane.
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Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and India’s billion dollar cricket team have been stranded in Barbados as the Caribbean island braces for the “life threatening” force of Category 4 hurricane, Beryl.
India might have beaten South Africa in the World Cup, but it was the Proteas who managed to escape Barbados for New York City on Sunday afternoon before the Bridgetown airport was shut down by the Government.
Officials from team India confirmed to this masthead on Sunday that the team has been unable to acquire a charter from the USA to arrive in Barbados in time, before the airport closes at 8pm local time.
They are grounded and will now be locked down for what the Barbadian Government is warning could be an unprecedented natural disaster for a nation that usually isn’t a prime hurricane target.
South African players and their families managed to scramble onto a commercial flight departing to New York just hours before the shutdown but team India will now have to batten down the hatches at their hotel in Barbados until the severe hurricane passes.
Both teams were not scheduled to leave Barbados until Monday local time, due to Sunday being a reserve day for the World Cup final, in the event of rain.
However, a potential crisis looms for India’s superstars, who have been flown on charter flights throughout the World Cup.
Escaping Barbados on Monday looms as a near impossibility – at least for commercial flights – with the extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 210km/h expected to hit Barbados late Sunday night or early Monday morning.
Hotel guests staying at hotels in Barbados have been warned to buy perishable food and water from super-markets before the island locks down on Sunday night, and many fans and workers on the island for the World Cup final who were unable to get out on Sunday, are now being told they may not be able to fly off the island for up to a week.
Due to the limited number of flights leaving Barbados and the huge number of international tourists on the island for the World Cup final, it has been virtually impossible for visitors to escape the island who didn’t already have existing flights out on Sunday.
Commercial flights departing Monday are being cancelled by airlines at a rate of knots.
India’s BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, who presented the World Cup trophy to his players on Saturday at Kensington Oval, is reportedly overseeing the desperate bid to hire a charter to get India’s 70-strong party of players, staff and family members out of Barbados.
However, given the severity of the hurricane – and the prospect of subsequent storms and weather systems to follow – it’s unknown when they will be able to leave.
“A life-threatening storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 1.8 metres to 2.7 metres above normal tide levels in areas of onshore flow near where the eye makes landfall in the hurricane warning area,” the national hurricane centre said.
A report from CNN said that the surge could bring “large and destructive waves near the coast.”
“Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, intensified to an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 210km/h Sunday morning, as it made its way towards the Windward Islands,” reported CNN.
It’s the only Category 4 hurricane ever recorded in the month of June.
On Sunday, businesses in the Bridgetown region of Barbados were starting to close.
Bars and restaurants were shuttered up as locals prepare to go into lockdown and brace for potentially the worst hurricane to hit the island since the 1930s.
It’s understood Team India officials told the International Cricket Council organisers of the tournament that they would make their own arrangements to fly out of Barbados.
A report on cricket website, cricbuzz said that as of Sunday, the plan was to fly all team members and family members to New Delhi, “where a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being considered.”
The Prime Minister personally phoned World Cup heroes, coach Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma to congratulate them after their thrilling defeat of South Africa.
Dravid is departing his role as coach, while Kohli and Rohit announced their retirements after the game from T20 international cricket.
The BCCI announced it would pay players over $22.5 million in prize money as a reward for winning India’s first World Cup since 2011.
Originally published as Hurricane Beryl leaves Indian cricket team stranded in Barbados after T20 World Cup win
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