India’s T20 World Cup cricket heroes to fly home after being stranded by powerful hurricane
By Duarte Mendonca, Manveena Suri and Jessie Yeung, CNN
(CNN) — India’s T20 World Cup-winning cricket team will finally be able to fly home Tuesday after being stuck in Barbados due to Hurricane Beryl, a powerful storm churning through the Caribbean.
The team, which claimed a seven-run victory over South Africa on Saturday to lift the trophy, has been unable to leave Barbados since the island’s international airport suspended operations a day later as the storm strengthened. By Monday, it became a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane — the earliest on record.
“There are a number of people who were due to leave last night late 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 12 hours that the airport will be open,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley told journalists late Monday.
In a statement on Monday, the airport said that it would resume operations on Tuesday.
CNN has reached out to India’s Board of Control for Cricket for comment.
The hurricane made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou Island in the Caribbean Sea on Monday morning, causing extreme damage and one confirmed death. Parts of St. Vincent and the Grenadines were left without electricity or water; meanwhile in Barbados, dozens of houses were damaged or lost roofs, according to the island’s prime minister.
As of early Tuesday, Hurricane Beryl had winds of 165 miles (265 kilometers) per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). It’s expected to slam into Jamaica on Wednesday, prompting the island nation to activate disaster response measures Tuesday.
India’s T20 World Cup victory – its first since winning the inaugural 2007 edition – sparked emotional celebrations after a year of heartbreak for many of its players, who lost to Australia in the finals of both the ODI Cricket World Cup and World Test Championship.
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