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