Scenes at airport slammed as Pat Cummins returns from India with World Cup

Most of our World Cup winning heroes are back at home after Australia’s victory but Indian fans were stunned by the scenes at the airport.

Indian fans have been left astounded by the lacklustre scenes as most of the victorious Australian World Cup team arrived home.

Aussie skipper Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood arrived home in Sydney and were met with little more than photographers and reporters.

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While the Aussie cricketers deserve ticker-tape parades and a national party for their remarkable achievement after claiming a famous victory over the undefeated and almost unbackable favourites India in the final, the returning stars were hardly given the welcome they deserved.

Pat Cummins back on home soil as a World Cup winning captain #CWC23pic.twitter.com/0r7MhPmwXZ

— Andrew McGlashan (@andymcg_cricket) November 21, 2023

One of the reasons why there wasn’t more fanfare could have been that the players returned to their own states.

Another reason may be that Sean Abbott, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa are all staying on for a five-match T20 series starting just four days after the World Cup Final (November 24, 12.30am Australian time).

The final match will be played on December 4 (Australian time) before the first Test against Pakistan in Perth starts the Aussie summer of cricket on December 14.

Also, as The Age reported, the trophy isn’t coming to Australia until next week.

But the low-key return has left Indian fans stunned.

One fan wrote: “This is Pat Cummins’ welcome at airport. Looks like cricket World Cup wasn’t telecasted in Australia.”

Not the reception the Aussies deserved. Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images

Cummins is home. Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images

Another said the scene showed: “Cricket is dying outside india.”

Another called the reception: “So cold. That is why I never wanted Australia to win the WC. Had India won the WC the celebration would were worth seeing.”

Another commented: “Any random Indian kid returning home after studying abroad will have more crowd than this.” The writer added: “I‘m not criticising them I’m just surprised no one’s there.”

There were plenty trying to make sense of it, including one that said: “When u have habit of wining each time nothing new for fans.”

Another argued: “The reason why Australia is this much successful is because they take cricket like a normal sports but in India we took it as religion.”

Another said that: “If the whole team returned, there would have been one massive party and gathering.”

A youngster got a pic with the Cummins doing his best Clark Kent impression. Photographer: Adam Yip

They say that cricket is a religion in India and fans flock to wherever the cricket stars are.

Although the official attendance of the World Cup final was over 92,000 at the 132,000-seat Narendra Modi Stadium, all you could see was a sea of blue Indian jerseys.

Even the airport was absolutely packed to watch them fly from Mumbai to Ahmedabad for the final.

VIDEO | Indian cricket team reaches Mumbai airport to board a flight to Ahmedabad where World Cup final is scheduled to be played on Sunday (November 19).#ICCCricketWorldCup23#CWC2023pic.twitter.com/X10B4qASDj

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 16, 2023

Imagine if they won …

It was a far cry from some of the raucous ticker-tape parades enjoyed by victorious Australian cricket teams of yesteryear.

“We’ve all split off our own different ways, there’s T20s coming up, some guys are on aeroplanes at the moment getting home as well,” Alex Carey told reporters on arrival home in Adelaide.

He added: “It’s probably pretty odd scheduling now that you look at it, to win a World Cup and a few days later you’re playing again.”

India have named an almost completely different squad for the series, which starts in Visakhapatnam and then goes to four different venues.

Welcome home boys. Photographer: Adam Yip

Suryakumar Yadav will captain for the first time in the absence of Rohit Sharma and is one of only three players retained from India’s World Cup squad.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan was much less diplomatic than Carey about the prospect of India and Australia meeting again so soon.

After Australia’s veteran opener David Warner withdrew from the series on Tuesday, Vaughan wrote on social media: “As all the players who won the World Cup should.

“They should have been pulled out to allow them time to recover but importantly get back to Oz to enjoy the celebrations.”

Vaughan, who is now a high-profile pundit, was even more forthright last week, calling the series “complete greed and overkill”.

“Why can’t we allow players the chance to have a moment’s rest after a WC or whoever wins the chance to celebrate properly for a couple of weeks,” he wrote on X.

With AFP