The Ministry of Railways was thanked by the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Kuldeep Yadav for quickly organising a special Vande Bharat train to evacuate players, support personnel, and the broadcast crew from Thursday’s postponed match between the Delhi Capitals (DC) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Dharamsala.
The players and other participants in the match would be transported out of “Little Lhasa” by a special train, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla announced Thursday. On Friday, the IPL shared a touching video of players like Shreyas Iyer and Faf du Plessis, together with commentators Anjum Chopra and Graeme Swann, leaving Dharamsala in the opulent Vande Bharat train.
The IPL posted a video on its official ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) page with a comment praising the Ministry of Railways for its swift action.
“Thank you, @RailMinIndia, for quickly setting up a special Vande Bharat train to transport the players, commentators, production crew, operations team, and support staff to New Delhi. We are really grateful for your prompt reply,” IPL wrote as the video’s caption.
I express my gratitude to the Indian Railways and BCCI once more: Kuldeep Yadav
DC wrist spinner Kuldeep praised the Indian Railways and the BCCI for their management of the situation,
pointing out the enormous number of people being transported out of Dharamsala via train.
“Staff and team members bohot hai. Cameramen se leke jitne bhi technical log jure huye hai isme, but BCCI ke kaafi log. Bohot accha tha pura crew bohot bada hai aur jis tarah se manage kiya hai. First of all, thank you, BCCI plus Indian Railway ko, bolna chahta hu. There are a lot of staff members and team members. Participants in this include cameramen, technical personnel, and members of the BCCI. The crew as a whole is quite large, and everything has been handled quite well. In the video, Kuldeep stated, “I want to thank the Indian Railway and the BCCI again.”
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. 🙌🏽@AshwiniVaishnaw | @JayShah |… pic.twitter.com/tUwzc5nGWD
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 9, 2025
The PBKS versus DC clash was stopped midway into the first innings after significant technical failure in the area which caused a power outage. With the airport being closed due to the cross-border tension between India and Pakistan, bringing the players out of Dharamsala via train was the most feasible option.
