Former England captain Michael Vaughan has once again raised the issue of the West Indies and South African teams being stuck in India days after their respective teams were knocked out of the T20 World Cup. The tournament came to an end on Sunday but teams like West Indies and South Africa, who had been out of the tournament in the Super 8 and semi-final stage respectively, have not been able to get a flight to their country yet.
In contrast, Vaughan said that the England team got a chartered flight just 36 hours after they were knocked out of the tournament with the semi-final loss against India.
“Just to let you all know that the West Indies got knocked out of the World Cup on March 1st .. it’s now March 9th .. they are still stranded in Kolkata .. SA are in the same position .. !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Notably, this is not the first time that the former England captain has raised the issue of the West Indies and South African teams being stuck in India.
In an earlier post, he wrote, “.. That’s where the power is all wrong .. All teams in this situation should be treated the same .. just because you are more powerful at the ICC table shouldn’t count”.
ICC on travel bias:
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had recently reacted to the statement by Vaughan stating that the departure of teams is dependent on airspace availability, aircraft routing permissions and visa requirements.
In a statement to the BBC, an ICC spokesperson said, “Decisions on departure sequencing are being driven solely by airspace availability, aircraft routing permissions, visa requirements and operational safety considerations.
“Any suggestion that teams have been prioritized based on anything other than these constraints is incorrect,” they added.
As per an ESPN report, West Indies and South Africa were given clarity about their travel plans on Sunday. The two sides were reportedly told they will leave India in the early hours of Tuesday on a charter flight to Johannesburg while West Indies would travel to Antigua from there.
Three members of the South African squad: Keshav Maharaj, Jason Smith and George Linde were scheduled to leave India for New Zealand on Sunday itself and head towards New Zealand where South Africa will play a five-match T20I series starting from 15 March.
