AGENCY
new delhi, MAY 14
The events of May 8 in Dharmsala marked a first in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) when the match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals was abandoned midway through the first innings due to security reasons stemming from escalating India-Pakistan border tensions.
Australia women’s cricket team captain Alyssa Healy, who is married to star quick Mitchell Starc, witnessed the chaos from the sidelines where she was seated along with family members of other Delhi Capitals players and support personnel. At the time, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) cited a technical failure of the floodlights at the time.
However, it later emerged that the real reason was heightened security alerts following air-raid sirens in areas not far from the India-Pakistan border. PBKS were cruising at 122 for 1 in 10.1 overs when one of the light towers went out. Soon after, others dimmed, and the players were ushered off the field. IPL chairman Arun Dhumal was seen urging spectators to evacuate the stadium as a blackout was ordered across Dharamsala.
Narrating the entire episode, Healy termed it a surreal experience, and explained the extent of caution that the security agencies took during the evacuation process.
“It was a surreal experience. All of a sudden a couple of the light towers went out and we were just sitting there up the top waiting… we’re a large group of family and extra support staff and the next minute the guy who wrangles the group of us and gets us on the bus came up and his face was white,” Healy said on The Willow Talk Podcast.
The wicketkeeper-batter said DC star Faf du Plessis was not even wearing his shoes when she reached the dressing rooms and upon asking her husband, Starc, the Aussie pacer said that there have been drone sightings and air-raid warning nearby.
“He was like, ‘we need to go right now’. Then another guy came out and his face was white and he grabbed one of the children and said, ‘we need to leave right now’. We were like, ‘what’s going on?’ We weren’t told anything. We had no idea. Next minute we are being shuffled into this room which was like a holding pen. All the boys were there. Faf du Plessis didn’t even have shoes on. We were all just waiting there, looking stressed. I said to Mitch, ‘what’s going on?’ He said the town 60 km away had just been smacked by some of the missiles so there was a complete blackout in the area. That’s why the lights were off because the Dharamsala stadium was like a beacon at that point in time. All of a sudden we’re crammed into vans and off we go back to the hotel. There was madness.
She continued, “We ended up going southwest towards the (Pakistan) border, which was a little bit terrifying. Mitch and I have played too much Call of Duty and we’re noticing all surface-to-missile sites that were just sitting there ready to go.
They’re radar-operated systems that shoot missiles at aircraft. We saw a few of them on the way in some small towns. Some peanuts down in the village decide, it’s a great idea to set off some fireworks in the middle of the day. I think everyone at lunch froze, turned around and was like, ‘oh my God!’ And then I could pinpoint, I could see the fireworks going up. I hope it was a wedding and I hope they have a beautiful marriage but that was just not good timing. There was anxiety and terrified at the same time, but I still feel like we would have been OK.
We weren’t right in the firing line.”
Thereafter, the players, support staff, families, and broadcasters were evacuated from Dharamsala and escorted to the Jalandhar railway station in batches through Hoshiarpur under tight security.
The squads arrived in New Delhi aboard a special ‘Vande Bharat Express’.
Following the incident, the IPL was suspended for a week. On May 12, a day after both India and Pakistan agreed for a ceasefire, the BCCI confirmed the tournament would resume on May 17, with the final now pushed back to June 3 instead of the originally scheduled May 25.
