Meeting with PM, open bus parade in Mumbai lined up for Rohit Sharma's T20 World champions

MUMBAI: Beryl, a Category 5 strong hurricane in Barbados may have delayed India's T20 World Cup winning team's arrival back home by around 72 hours, but the day-long welcome party of India's first bunch of cricket World Cup winners since 2011 will be truly grand.
Soon after landing in New Delhi on Thursday morning (6am) in a special-arranged Air India aircraft, aptly named 'AIC24WC' (it was the most tracked flight in India on Wednesday), the team will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence from 10 am to noon. Rohit Sharma & Co will then fly to Mumbai, and after their arrival at 2pm, will proceed straight to NCPA at Nariman Point.

From 5pm to 7pm, the team will enjoy an open bus parade (for about a kilometre long stretch) at the Marine Drive from the Nariman Point to the Wankhede Stadium-just like MS Dhoni and his boys did back in 2007 after winning the inaugural T20 World Cup. Dhoni's team's victory parade had happened from the airport in pouring rain and the bus took six hours to reach the venue.
Thereafter, at a small function at the Wankhede Stadium in the evening (from 7 to 7.30pm), the team will be handed over a cheque of Rs 125 crore by BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who had already made the announcement on Sunday. Post the function, the team will leave for its hotel in Colaba. "A special stage is being constructed at the Wankhede Stadium for the function. The team will take a victory lap of the stadium as well," a source told TOI.
The celebrations are expected to cause traffic snarls in South Mumbai, but the citizens would not mind enduring some inconvenience in a bid to honour their heroes. Like it was in 2007, thousands of people are likely to turn up at the Marine Drive promenade and at the Wankhede on Thursday to cheer their heroes.
"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 #Champions @BCCI@ IPL," posted BCCI secretary Jay Shah on X.

Skipper Rohit Sharma too exhorted the Mumbai citizens to come out and cheer. "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," he posted on his X handle.

Stranded in Bridgetown for the past three days due to the hurricane-they won the final against South Africa on Saturday - the players boarded a specially arranged 'Long Range' Air India chartered aircraft on Tuesday night from Barbados (Wednesday afternoon in India), which flew straight to New Delhi.
BCCI help for stranded India media
In a magnanimous gesture, BCCI secretary Jay Shah came forward to help the 20-odd Indian media personnel stranded in Barbados by offering them to fly with the Indian team on the chartered flight from Barbados to Delhi. Barbados has been on high alert due to the Hurricane Beryl threat in the island nation since Sunday.