T20 World Cup winning Indian team to take part in open bus road show, felicitation at Wankhede

MUMBAI: The T20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team will take part in an open bus road show followed by a felicitation ceremony here at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

The Indian team is expected to reach New Delhi early on Thursday morning (6:20am) after departing from Barbados' Grantley Adams International Airport in a chartered flight which has a special call sign - AIC24WC - Air India Champions 24 World Cup.

The departure of the Indian squad was delayed due to Hurricane Beryl. However, the team, its support staff, the players' families, some board officials and travelling Indian media finally managed to leave Barbados in the charter flight arranged by the BCCI early on Wednesday morning (4:50am local time).

"The team has left from Barbados on a special Air India flight hired by the BCCI. The Indian journalists who were stuck there (Barbados) are also coming on the same flight along with BCCI president (Roger Binny) and secretary (Jay Shah), who are looking after all the arrangements," BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla told PTI.

"The flight will land at Delhi airport tomorrow 6 am. The team will meet PM Narendra Modi at 11 am at his residence. After this, the team will fly to Mumbai, where a ceremony has been organised.

"There will be a road show from Nariman Point in an open bus and later we will honour and felicitate the players with the prize money of Rs 125 crore as announced,” he added.

BCCI secretary Shah welcomed all fans to join the victory parade on Thursday evening.

"Join us for the Victory Parade honouring Team India's World Cup win! Head to Marine Drive and Wankhede Stadium on July 4th from 5:00 pm onwards to celebrate with us! Save the date! #TeamIndia," Shah wrote on 'X', formerly twitter.

Victorious India captain Rohit Sharma also took to social media to welcome the fans.

"We want to enjoy this special moment with all of you. So let's celebrate this win with a victory parade at Marine Drive & Wankhede on July 4th from 5:00pm onwards.

It's coming home," Rohit posted on 'X'.

A felicitation event at the Wankhede Stadium is also planned for the members of the Indian team.

A similar road show was held here 14 years ago when Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team had beaten arch-rivals Pakistan in the final of the inaugural 2007 World T20 in South Africa.

Rohit and his men won the title after pulling off a thrilling seven-run win over South Africa in the final on Saturday at the Kensington Oval.