BCCI spends INR 3.5 crore on team India's flight to West Indies from Manchester

Team India is set to take on West Indies in a three-match ODI series, followed by five T20Is. The visitors will be without their regular skipper Rohit Sharma along with some other first-choice players during the ODI fixtures and Shikhar Dhawan will lead the Indian team with Ravindra Jadeja acting as the vice-captain.

India were in England prior to this tour to feature in 3 T20Is and as many ODIs and had to travel directly from the UK to the Caribbean nation. Meanwhile, it has been understood that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has spent a whopping amount of INR 3.5 crore to land its contingent of 16 players in the West Indies where they will face each other in white-ball matches. The board had to book a chartered flight for its players to travel from England to West Indies.

India travelled from Manchester to Port of Spain

A BCCI official stated that the reason to book a chartered flight was the number of members in the Indian contingent including the players’ wives and the support staff. “The BCCI spent Rs 3.5 crore on the chartered flight which took Team India from Manchester on Tuesday afternoon to Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad and Tobago) by 11.30 pm IST.

“The reason a chartered flight was booked for the team was not Covid-19. It’s difficult to book so many tickets on 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 have traveled to the Caribbean too,” the official told Times of India.

“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,” he added.

As mentioned above, team India will be without the services of their permanent skipper Rohit Sharma during the ODI series. However, he will be leading the Men in Blue during the T20I series. Prominent batter Virat Kohli has been rested for the tour with the newcomers getting a chance to show their skills at the international level.