DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Cricket’s world governing body, the ICC, was breathing easier Wednesday following the relaxation of travel restrictions in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe which paved the way for international teams to begin their travel to the Caribbean for the World Twenty20 Championship.
Ash from the Icelandic volcano had forced the closure of UK airports and some in Europe, grounding flights and threatening travel for the April 30 to May 16 showpiece. The ICC were on the verge of mounting a contingency plan which would have involved flying up to seven teams to Dubai and then airlifting them to the Caribbean by charter.
“I’m delighted to say that the teams will now fly to the West Indies as originally scheduled,” said ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said after airports re-opened Tuesday.
“I want to thank both Emirates (airline) and the ICC executive for working so hard to ensure that we had a back-up plan to transport teams to the Caribbean.
“Emirates continues to assist teams with their travel plans and we are extremely grateful for that support.”
The contingency plan would have seen Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, South Africa and Bangladesh heading to Dubai on Sunday or Monday before being flown to the Caribbean on a charter flight.
ICC officials, however, were sweating over plans on how to facilitate travel for the England team and had been exploring the options of helicopters or low-flying aircraft.
England will now fly directly to Barbados where they will play a warm-up match against Bangladesh next Wednesday.
Afghanistan, who will debut in the tournament after winning the qualifying tournament, had been scheduled to travel to Trinidad and Tobago on Monday for two warm-up matches but were grounded in Dubai.
They will now fly via London to the Caribbean in the next few days.
Ireland and Zimbabwe are the only teams to arrive for the tournament, having arrived ahead of schedule to participate in the Jamaica Cricket Association Festival.
