The Indian cricket team, who won the T20 World Cup, might return home Tuesday evening after being stranded in Barbados for two days due to Hurricane Beryl.
According to Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, it is expected to operate again within six to twelve hours.
Following a pair of extraneous winds and storms by Hurricane Beryl, Barbados has been under lock and key since Sunday evening. The storm was Category 4 hurricane that caused considerable damage on coastal infrastructure. When they won the title by defeating South Africa in a seven-run victory on Saturday, the Indian Cricket team became stranded. PM Mia Mottley supervised relief efforts. She expressed optimism about resuming normal airport operations shortly.
“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 normal operations as a matter of urgency,” Mottley told PTI.
Many plans have been disrupted with people expecting departure either late last night or today or tomorrow morning.
“There are a number of people who were due to leave late last night 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 twelve hours that the airport will be open,” she said.
In addition, PM Mottley hopes that despite all odds surrounding their stay in the hotel where they are at right now, India team’s spirits remain high following their triumph over South Africa on Friday night.
“I’m sure that despite passage of Hurricane irrespective of them finishing up being very very very much jubilant since they won this game on Saturday. They will be floating on air for quite a time,” she remarked.
Though Barbados main land dodged direct hit from stormy weather conditions associated with hurricane; some nearby islands as well as coastal areas experienced severe weather conditions.
“(We have) been working to ensure that everyone is safe in Barbados, Barbadians and all of the visitors, of course, who came for the 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 coastal infrastructure, and coastal assets have been badly damaged,” Mottley said.
The PM also stressed on the urgency of recovery processes without overlooking the need for cleaning up. There is a very tight timetable for when they must leave since another hurricane is expected to hit on Wednesday.
“It could have been a lot worse but now is the time to do the recovery and the cleanup. We have another hurricane coming on Wednesday,” PM Mottley added.
Having won their first ICC title in eleven years, jubilations from this win overshadowed temporary stranding in Barbados for Indian team members;
