After they won the T20 World Cup in Barbados on June 29, the Indian team's return was delayed by a few days due to Hurricane Beryl. The BCCI arranged a special flight of Air India to ferry the T20 cricket World Cup champions home, who were stranded in the West Indies due to an airport shutdown in the wake of the hurricane.
The charted flight arranged by BCCI secretary Jay Shah also carried members of Indian media who went to cover the tournament but got stranded along with the Indian team due to the hurricane.
During the 16-hour flight back to Delhi, interesting details emerged about the team's journey.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, a Star Sports producer who was a part of the contingent that travelled back on the special Air India flight revealed interesting details of what happened on the plane with the victorious team.
While 'Indiranagar ka Gunda' Rahul Dravid was seen scouting the economy class, for a place to sleep, elsewhere, Rohit Sharma was scolding someone.
“I think hardly anyone slept for more than six hours. That would have been the maximum. At no point was anyone quiet. Everyone was mingling around. Players came to meet the members of the press and a few others,” said the producer.
Everyone on the flight was talking to each other, and Rohit Sharma came several times to the economy class. "I believe at one moment, Rahul Dravid came up to the economy section to figure out if there was a 4-seater because he wanted to sleep. He came there from the business class and slept there for some time," said the producer.
Soon after, Rohit Sharma was heard shouting till Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant joined him for a chat.
“I remember I was sleeping, and I could suddenly hear Rohit scolding somebody. I saw and he was standing right there. But Rohit, in his style, was scolding jokingly. After that, Hardik came, Rishabh came, and they were all having discussions with the media,” said the Star Sports producer.
The flight had taken off from Barbados at 4:00 am local time the previous day. Upon deboarding, the team was ushered through a different exit while thousands of people chased the Indian team's bus after it exited.
