Watch: Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals Players Reach Delhi By Special Vande Bharat Train

A special Vande Bharat train having both Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Delhi Capitals (DC) players and support staff members, match officials, commentators, broadcast crew members, operations staff and other key personnel associated with the called off IPL 2025 game in Dharamshala has reached New Delhi from Jalandhar. The DC team bus, along with other buses, were in readiness near the Safdarjung Railway Station to ferry players from both teams and various key personnel to their hotels. After deboarding the train, everyone went into their earmarked buses and were off to their respective hotels in New Delhi. The likes of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ricky Ponting, Nehal Wadhera, Marco Jansen, Tristan Stubbs, Heman Badani, Jake Fraser McGurk, Yuzi Chahal, Priyansh Arya, Axar Patel, Shashank Singh, Brad Haddin, Patrick Farhat, along with entire DC and PBKS teams, commentators Alan Wilkins and Graeme Swann, and PBKS co-owner Preity Zinta amongst others were seen entering their respective buses after arriving at the railway station.

“There were many team members and staff personnel. Plus, there were many people from BCCI, a camera crew, technical and operations people. The whole crew was very big, and the way they managed it was very good. I would like to thank again BCCI plus Indian Railways,” said Kuldeep Yadav, DC's left-arm wrist-spinner, in a video posted on IPL's ‘X' account.

The IPL 2025 match between PBKS and DC was called off after just 10.1 overs of play in the first innings at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, due to air and drone strikes from Pakistan causing blackouts in Jammu, Pathankot and Udhampur, all of which were near the hill station.

As soon as the game was called off and spectators were made to vacate the stadium in a calm manner, players and support staff members of both teams, as well as other personnel working around the game in Dharamshala, headed back to their respective hotels safely under tight security.

With Dharamshala being a no-fly zone, just like other North Indian cities, the main concern amongst top people in the BCCI was how to ensure players and other stakeholders get to move out safely from Dharamshala. A late-night dialogue between top BCCI officials and Indian Railways ensured that they would go from Dharamshala to Jalandhar in a convoy of buses and board their train to New Delhi.

“The plan was there earlier to take the train to New Delhi from Pathankot, but from a security and players' safety point of view, Jalandhar looked much safer at the end. With the help of police from both Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, along with other security officials, everything was readied meticulously to accommodate everyone in the journey from Dharamshala to Jalandhar and then to New Delhi,” said sources aware of developments to IANS.

The Indian Premier League also put out a post on X, formerly Twitter, thanking the Railways Ministry for arranging the train.

"Thank you, @RailMinIndia, for arranging a special Vande Bharat train on such short notice to ferry the players, support staff, commentators, production crew members, and operations staff to New Delhi. We deeply appreciate your swift response," said the post, which was accompanied by a video showing the journey from Jalandhar to New Delhi.

To ensure absolute secrecy of the nearly 12-hour-long journey, everyone who boarded buses from their respective hotels in Dharamshala weren't exactly told before hand about where they would board the train for going to New Delhi.

Even if someone knew of details, they were told to maintain confidentiality under very strict security reasons and were refrained from posting anything about it on any platform, including on social media platforms, till they reached New Delhi.

Previously, the IPL 2025 was suspended for a week by the BCCI on Friday afternoon, owing to cross-border tension between India and Pakistan. The tournament had completed 58 games, with 12 matches left to be played in the league stage and followed by the playoffs. It remains to be seen how the situation unfolds in the next few days, so that the tournament gets a window for resumption.

--IANS

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