Former England captain Michael Vaughan took to social media to address the imbalance among cricketing nations while discussing ICC’s travel arrangements for teams knocked out of the T20 World Cup.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan weighed in on the power imbalance between teams in cricket while discussing travel arrangements for teams that have been knocked out of the ongoing T20 World Cup. In a post on X, Vaughan said that while the England cricket team has already returned home via a charter flight, West Indies have remained stuck in Kolkata despite their campaign coming to an end on Sunday.
The former batter added that South Africa too found themselves in a similar situation despite being eliminated by New Zealand in the semi-finals a day before India knocked England out.
It’s worth noting that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between USA and Israel on one side and Iran on the other has led to the airspace being shut across a majority of the Gulf nations, especially in the aftermath of Tehran’s retaliatory missile strikes.
Vaughan argued that in such a situation, all teams should be treated equally instead of preference being shown to some of the more powerful teams such as England, which is part of Cricket’s ‘Big Three’ alongside India and Australia.
“So England got knocked out on Thurs get a charter home today .. West Indies go out last Sunday and are still in Kolkata .. SA in the same position .. That’s where the power is all wrong .. All teams in this situation should be treated the same .. just because you are more powerful at the ICC table shouldn’t count,” Vaughan wrote on X on Saturday.
When are West Indies and South Africa leaving India?
It’s also worth noting, however, that while India and the United Kingdom are well connected in terms of air travel with multiple direct flights between these two nations, the same cannot be said about South Africa or the Caribbean.
I just wanna go home
— Daren Sammy (@darensammy88) March 5, 2026
The ICC had earlier arranged for charter flights for the English, South African and West Indian teams over the weekend. The Harry Brook-led English squad departed for the UK from Mumbai on Saturday in a direct flight. South Africa and West Indies, on the other hand, will be flying out of Kolkata,
with the date of their flight yet to be confirmed.
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The South African and West Indian contingents will be traveling together to Johannesburg first, from where the latter will be taking a separate flight to Antigua and Barbuda. Some members of the Proteas squad, however, will be traveling to New Zealand for a limited-overs tour that gets underway on 15 March.
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