Alyssa Healy reveals 'madness' that followed after PBKS-DC IPL match was called off: 'We’re crammed into vans...'

Australia women’s captain Alyssa Healy opened up on her “surreal experience” in Dharamsala after the Indian Premier League match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals at the HPCA Stadium on Thursday was called off due to the armed conflict between India and Pakistan .

Healy further described the “madness” that followed after the floodlights started getting switched off one by one during the 11th over of the Punjab innings, after which players and match officials as well as spectators were quickly escorted out of the venue.

Though the BCCI cited floodlight failure as the official reason for the match getting called off, play was halted shortly after the city of Pathankot in Punjab, located 90 kilometres from Dharamsala, was attacked by Pakistani armed forces.

The players, match and franchise officials as well as members of the broadcast crew were later escorted to New Delhi by a special Vande Bharat train that the BCCI had arranged after speaking with the Ministry of Railways.

Also Read | IPL cheerleader shares ‘scary’ experience as Dharamsala match is called off

And a day after the PBKS-DC game was called off, the board decided to suspend the IPL for a week.

“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 was told The Willow Talk podcast.

“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 in there. Faf (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 60km 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,” the wicketkeeper-batter added.

Healy describes “terrifying” scenes during journey from Dharamsala to Delhi

Healy further described “terrifying” scenes during the IPL contingent’s journey to Delhi, which included a bus ride to the nearest railway station from where they boarded the Vande Bharat train.

“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 the (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 through in some small towns.

“Some peanut down in the village decides 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,” she added.

Healy, who leads UP Warriorz in the Women’s Premier League, has been attending Delhi Capitals’ matches in the ongoing IPL season to cheer for her husband – Australia pacer Mitchell Starc.

Starc has since returned home along with fellow pacer Josh Hazlewood and the rest of the Australians participating in the ongoing IPL season, which is set to resume from Saturday, 17 May and conclude on 3 June following the BCCI’s announcement of a revised schedule.

Starc and Hazlewood’s participation in the remaining games of the season, however, is doubtful due to the ICC World Test Championship final that gets underway on 11 June, in which the Pat Cummins-led Australian team defends its title against South Africa at Lord’s.