{"id":27580,"date":"2026-03-03T12:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T10:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=27580"},"modified":"2026-03-03T13:52:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:52:54","slug":"west-indies-zimbabwe-unable-to-return-from-india-due-to-middle-east-airspace-closures","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/west-indies-zimbabwe-unable-to-return-from-india-due-to-middle-east-airspace-closures\/","title":{"rendered":"West Indies, Zimbabwe unable to return from India due to Middle East airspace closures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The West Indies and Zimbabwe teams said on Monday they have delayed their return \u200bfrom India after their exit from the \u200cTwenty20 World Cup due to international airspace closures amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>West Indies failed to \u200breach the semi-finals after Sunday&#8217;s five-wicket \u200bloss to hosts India, while Zimbabwe were eliminated \u2060after losing all three of their Super \u200bEights matches.<\/p>\n<p>However, neither team could travel back as \u200bthousands of flights were cancelled in countries across the Gulf, disrupting some of the world&#8217;s busiest transit hubs, as conflict \u200bescalated between Iran and the US and Israel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The \u200bZimbabwe men&#8217;s team remains safe and well in India&#8230; the \u200csquad \u2060was scheduled to return home via Dubai,&#8221; Zimbabwe Cricket said in a social media post.<\/p>\n<p>Cricket West Indies (CWI) said they were working with the \u200bsport&#8217;s global \u200bbody (ICC) to \u2060make safe travel arrangements for the players and staff.<\/p>\n<p>The ICC, headquartered in \u200bDubai, earlier said that they had activated \u200bcontingency \u2060plans for their personnel, who were scheduled to transit through Dubai for onward travel to their \u2060home countries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The \u200bsafety and well-being of \u200bour players, coaches, and officials remain our highest priority,&#8221; CWI added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12106,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-27580","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27584,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27580\/revisions\/27584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}