If Team India winning the T20 World Cup 2024 in Bridgetown is a big story, then the team's return home after that is no less a story. The arrangement of the charter flight, the resumption of work at Grantley Adams International Airport after some relief from Hurricane Beryl, a special number of that charter flight (AIC24WC – Air India Champions 24 World Cup), the controversial pictures of the trophy in different hands during the flight, showing the difference of about 10 hours on the face after a long flight (16 hours) without rest and time, meeting with the PM in Delhi, open bus road show in Mumbai and then the cricketers getting a rousing welcome in their respective cities and a shower of prizes – all these are special and many new things will keep coming out about them in the future too.

This is not the first time that BCCI has arranged for the team's travel through a charter flight, but the conditions in that part of the world due to the storm made this time's arrangement special. Believe me – no special plane was sent from India. The passengers of the flight that was going from Newark to Delhi were transferred to another Air India flight and the plane thus obtained was sent to Grantley Adams Airport for the team.

All this is special and while reading this, do you remember any such 'World Cup Flight' in cricket? There is another story which is from the time when there were no mobiles and internet – one can easily imagine how the arrangements would have been made then. The pilot of that flight was also a part of not only cricket but the World Cup. This is one of the most interesting stories of travel in cricket. For this, one has to go straight to Lahore and the day was 17 March, the Sri Lanka-Australia final of the 1996 World Cup.

It was the biggest day in Sri Lanka's sports history – Wills won the World Cup by defeating Australia in the final. Winning this World Cup was like a fairy tale for Sri Lanka – hardly anyone had predicted this success. The team which had not been able to go beyond the first round in the last 5 World Cups – won the World Cup. The whole country of Sri Lanka rejoiced. The team did not even return and the government and other organizations announced plots, cash prizes and awards for the players of the winning team. All this made the atmosphere even more heated – everyone in Sri Lanka wanted the team to return immediately with the World Cup and the cricketers were equally eager – to share this happiness with the people of their country and family.

Now the question was how to arrange for immediate return? Even the Sri Lankan board had not thought about all this and the team had to return the next day by a regular commercial flight as per the scheduled programme. The entire country was then embroiled in a civil war and this news brought some relief on every face and that is why Arjuna Ranatunga's team became heroes. Every player of the team was adamant – they have to return home that very night.

Now let's come to the morning of that final. A travel agent had booked a chartered flight of Air Lanka to bring some special cricket lovers and VVIPs to Lahore to watch this final and return to Colombo the same night. The team got the news of this flight but that flight was full – those who had come had to return. All the operations of that flight were being looked after by its pilot himself. Some seniors of the team met them. They requested to take them back as well but where was the space in the flight? All this was possible only because this pilot was none other than Sunil Wettimuny, who had played cricket for Sri Lanka – the elder brother of Sidath, a cricketer of the team, had played in the 1975 World Cup and after getting injured by Jeff Thomson's bouncer, had scored the first 50 for Sri Lanka in ODI before retiring. When Arjuna Ranatunga himself spoke to him, he too became serious.

Now the story of the captain of the flight, Sunil Wettimuny- He was once a contender to become the captain of the Sri Lankan team. When all this was going on, he was really tired- he brought the flight early in the morning in which there were 8 ministers in the government. He had thought that he would take some rest before returning in the evening but when he too got an invitation to watch the match in the stadium, he watched the match. Even after this, he thought that he would sleep for 1-2 hours before flying the flight but this new difficulty of keeping the team fit had put him in more trouble. Sidharth himself and team manager Dilip Mendis were repeatedly questioning him. Sunil was stuck in a big problem.

Incidentally, another story was also spread. Many of the ministers and other VIPs who had come on that flight had their wives on board. These women were focused on shopping in Lahore's famous markets. They went to the market after the match, but how could shopping in 1-2 hours in Lahore's world-famous markets be enough to satisfy them? The result was that the pilot received a message that some women would stay and would not return that night on this flight. Only a few seats were left and Sunil Vettimuny also admits that he cheated on the load sheet.

The load was too much and on top of that the players could not sit still in the flight – there was a disco going on in the flight itself. The situation was such that at one point the pilot himself had to come out of the cockpit and say that if this kind of dancing continues, the flight will crash. They were very tired in this whole drama and the record is that they did an automatic landing in Colombo – they themselves were not in a condition to land. It was a tri-star plane. Anyway the flight landed – the plane was parked and they had seen the crowd around the airport from above. They were thinking how to get out of the airport?

There are more stories about this flight. Even then the team did not get a minute's relief – the same meeting with VIPs and then the road show. The cricketers were able to return home only the evening of the next day after the match.