IND vs WI: BCCI Shells Out INR 3.5 cr For Indian Team's Flight From The UK To The West Indies

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) spent a whopping INR 3.5 crores for the Indian team’s chartered flight from England to the West Indies.

The Men in Blue are on a white-ball tour where they will play 3 ODIs followed by 5 T20Is against the Windies. They recently finished the 3-match ODI series against England and travelled to the Caribbean directly.

“The BCCI spend Rs 3.5 Cr on the chartered flight that took Team India from Manchester on Tuesday afternoon to Port-of-Spain by 11:30 PM IST. The reason the chartered flight was booked for the team was not Covid-19.”

“It is difficult to book so many tickets in a commercial flight – the Indian contingent includes 16 players and members of the support staff, including head coach Rahul Dravid. There are players’ wives who travelled to the Caribbean too,” a source told TOI.

The move made sense to the officials as most of the top football clubs in England has their own chartered flight for travelling across the country and abroad.

“Normally in a commercial flight, this expense would’ve been around Rs 2 crore. A business class ticket from Manchester to Port of Spain would be around Rs 2 lakh. A chartered flight is more expensive but it’s a logical option to take. Most top football teams have a charter now,” the source added.

The first of the 3 ODIs will be played on July 22, Friday, at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

India’s squad for 3 ODIs for WI:

Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.

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