Australia’s star women's cricketer Alyssa Healy was in Dharamshala to support husband Mitchell Starc when his team, Delhi Capitals, played against PBKS in the Dharamshala stadium. The match was abandoned after 10 overs because of a “blackout” in Dharamshala due to Drone attacks by Pakistan. The IPL was also suspended for a week following this incident. The crowd and the players were asked to leave the stadium mid-way only because of the attacks by Pakistan. Alyssa Healy, who was present in the stadium, said that it all happened so quickly that they didn’t even have time to understand anything. The BCCI ensured that the safety of the players was their topmost priority; that’s why a special train was organized for the players and the officials after this incident to Delhi, from where all the players left for their respective cities, whereas the foreign players flew back to their countries.
Surreal experience says Healy
Alyssa Healy, who was sitting in the stands with family members of other players, remembers the moment and says
"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,"
The match was stopped in between and the crowd sitting in the stadium was also asked to leave the stadium immediately. BCCI ensured a smooth exit for the fans as there were no reports of any type of mishap and stamped in this difficult time.
Du Plessis wasn’t even wearing shoes
Healy mentioned that it all happened so quickly that they didn’t have time to even think, and she added that
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 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,"
It was like call of duty warzone
Healy recalled that the scenes near the border were similar to Call of Duty video game’s Warzone
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 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 further revealed.
The Ipl is all set to resume from 17th May with a clash between RCB and KKR after India and Pakistan's ceasefire announcement.
About the Author
Arpit Sharma is a sports writer and journalism student at Chandigarh University, with a strong interest in sports analysis and storytelling. His writing combines match insights with a fresh, fan-first perspective that brings the game to life.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Vygr's views.
With inputs from agencies
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