After long travel ordeal in India, West Indies players are finally back home, informs Caribbean cricket governing body

The West Indies, along with South Africa, were stuck in India for several days owing to the conflict in the Middle East and West Asia.

Updated on: Mar 15, 2026, 20:51:53 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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Cricket West Indies (CWI) has confirmed all of its T20 World Cup squad members have reached the archipelago nation following a lengthy delay in India.

Finally, the West Indies players are back home. (HT_PRINT)

The Caribbean team played its last game against eventual champions India on March 1, but due to the war in the Middle East and West Asia, they couldn't fly back the very next day. Airspace operations around the world have been affected by the ongoing war.

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As a result, the West Indies were stuck in Kolkata for several days after their match at the Eden Gardens. They finally flew out earlier this week. South Africa was another team stuck in India following their defeat at the hands of New Zealand on March 4. They too departed earlier this week.

Michael Vaughan went hard at the ICC

The whole thing created a lot of controversy. Former England captain Michael Vaughan accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of bias, citing the English team's example. The English team left India the very next day after their defeat on March 5. Vaughan suggested the ICC was more concerned about the big cricket boards. The ICC refuted those claims shortly after.

West Indies head coach Daren Sammy was particularly frustrated at the development, and he often let his opinion be known on X. "Just wanna go home" was one of his posts that drew a lot of attention.

Anyway, CWI released a small release on Saturday to confirm that the ordeal of the players was over, and it thanked the ICC unequivocally. "Cricket West Indies wishes to inform that, as of today, Saturday, 14 March 2026, all players and members of the Team Management Unit (TMU) who were part of the West Indies Men’s squad at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in India have returned home safely.

"Following the previously outlined challenges relating to cancellations of chartered flights coordinated by the International Cricket Council (ICC), commercial travel was successfully secured for the members of the squad earlier this week. The final group of players and support staff completed their journeys over the past several days and have now safely arrived at their respective destinations.

"Cricket West Indies extends its sincere appreciation to the ICC, regional cricket boards, and other stakeholders who assisted in facilitating the safe return of the team. We also thank West Indies fans and the wider cricketing community for their concern and well-wishes.

"The well-being and safety of our players and staff remain paramount, and we are grateful that the matter has now been brought to a safe and satisfactory conclusion," the release read.

The West Indies had had a good T20 World Cup until they were beaten by South Africa and India back-to-back in the Super 8s.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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