Natural Calamity in the form of a severe Earthquake has inflicted Nepal and left the country in a state of despair. On this note, the football team of India Under-14 girls were in Kathmandu when the calamity broke in. And fortunately, they were brought safely in the country on Sunday through means of a military aircraft.
The All India Football Federation tweeted the following today:
“The U-14 Girl’s Team has landed safely in New Delhi. Everyone stays safe.”
The outbreak of Earthquake on Sunday delayed the team’s departure from the earthquake inflicted capital of Nepal. The aircraft which was supposed to bring the team back was expected to depart from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 12.30 p.m.
But fresh tremors of the earthquake on Sunday delayed the departure of the flight. And that led the team, which included 18 players and five officials to wait at the airport.
The President of AIFF, Praful Patel tweeted of the fact that the players would be staying the night in Delhi and would go into their respective homes on Monday.
An AIFF official also told in the evening that they were about to exit the Indira Gandhi International Airport then.
The team went to Kathmandu to play the Asian Football Confederation’s Regional Championship. And matches were scheduled for the South and the Central Zone. The Indian team were scheduled to play Iran in the third-fourth place playoff match which was expected to start at 1 p.m. sharp at the Dashrath Stadium on Saturday.
An hour prior to the start of the match, the calamity broke in and the authorities were forced to call off the abandonment of the match and also the final. On Friday, India lost to Nepal in the semi final.
The entire team spent the night of Saturday outside their hotel rooms and also slept in the hotel compound as a precautionary measure.
Following the recurrence of the earthquake on Sunday, which was measured to be of magnitude 6.7 on the Richter Scale, the Kathmandu airport was closed and relief works were halted till 4 p.m.
The Earthquake has resulted in over 2200 deaths in Nepal and around 50 deaths in the neighboring regions of India.