Four days after bowing out of the 2026 T20 World Cup, West Indies players are still living out of suitcases in a Kolkata hotel. Airspace closures linked to the West Asian crisis have left several teams scrambling for a way home, and head coach Daren Sammy has summed up the mood in one line on X: “I just wanna go home”.
The ICC had floated an idea of a mid-week charter to London, but—crucially—never pinned down a date. Since then, nothing concrete. The squad that lost to India on 1 March in the Super Eight remains on standby, with team staff keeping phones charged and fingers crossed.
Logistics have been complicated by the number of usual Gulf transit hubs either closed or heavily restricted. With flights re-routed and aircraft in short supply, administrators are juggling seats, visas and ever-changing air corridors.
Zimbabwe have at least made some progress. A first group left Delhi on Wednesday after the ICC tore up the original itinerary. “Zimbabwe Cricket confirms that the Zimbabwe senior men’s team participating in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 are on their way home from India after the International Cricket Council secured alternative travel arrangements following recent transit disruptions,” the board said. “Due to flight availability and revised routing, the squad will return to Harare in batches.” The revised path runs through Addis Ababa instead of the planned Dubai stop-over.
That partial success offers a template, yet every team has its own puzzle. South Africa, knocked out by New Zealand in Wednesday’s semi-final, are waiting to hear when a safe corridor opens up. England could find themselves in a similar spot if they fall to India in Thursday’s second semi-final.
Behind the scenes, the ICC’s travel department is pulling double shifts. A charter sounds simple, but sourcing an aircraft large enough to hop continents, securing landing slots and squaring immigration paperwork for multiple nationalities is a tall order—much higher, in truth, than most fans realise.
For now, Sammy’s men can only train lightly, swap streaming recommendations and look out of the team-room window at a city ready for its next festival. The hope is that the call to reception comes soon. Until then, “I just wanna go home” speaks for an entire squad, perhaps the entire tournament.
