BCCI spends INR 3.5 crore on Team India's flight to West Indies

After a near-perfect tour of England, the Indian team flew out to the West Indies for an eight-game white ball tour. The Men in Blue will play three ODIs along with five T20Is in the Caribbean as they prepare for the T20 World Cup 2022. But for this tour, the BCCI has already broken the bank as they had to pay a huge sum of money in travel expenses. 

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As per reports, The BCCI has expended INR 3.5 crore on a private jet which was taken by the Indian team for the journey from Manchester to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. The flight took off on Tuesday afternoon from England and landed in Port of Spain by 11.30 pm IST.

The BCCI backed this expense by addressing the size of the traveling party from Manchester.

"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."

A source was quoted saying to Times of India

"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 source continued in a report by the TOI.

"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 report added.

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India's squad for 3 ODIs:

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

Axar Patel

Yuzvendra Chahal

Avesh Khan

Prasidh Krishna

Mohammed Siraj

Arshdeep Singh

India's squad for 5 T20Is:

Rohit Sharma (Captain)

Ishan Kishan

KL Rahul

Suryakumar Yadav

Deepak Hooda

Shreyas Iyer

Dinesh Karthik (wk)

Rishabh Pant (wk)

Hardik Pandya

Ravindra Jadeja

Axar Patel

R Ashwin

Ravi Bishnoi

Kuldeep Yadav

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Avesh Khan

Harshal Patel

Arshdeep Singh