By IANS
New Delhi : The Future Series cup that India won in Ireland defeating South Africa 2-1 in the three one-day internationals and Sachin Tendulkar’s Man of the Series trophy are yet to reach the country.
British Airways, which was supposed to carry the trophies to India, Thursday sought to dispel rumours that the bags which also had the Man of the Match trophies won by Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir, were not lost but delayed in transit as the airline had a large backlog of unaccompanied baggage.
The missing bags also contain 12 bats autographed by both South African and Indian players.
The baggage was booked by Percept D’Mark, a sports management company which held the ground marketing rights to the ODI series. Their officials returned from Glasgow to Mumbai and changed flights at London’s Heathrow Airport enroute.
British Airways officials said the bags might have been left behind during transit. There was a four-hour stopover at Heathrow, where they were more delays due to the terror attacks at the Glasgow airport.
“Heathrow has come under intense pressure during one of the busiest times of the year as the airport’s already stretched infrastructure has struggled to cope with record hold and transfer baggage volumes, driven by the hand baggage restrictions introduced last August in the UK,” the airline said in a statement.
About 9,000 bags are lying unclaimed at Heathrow and British Airways said the missing luggage could be among them.
“The trophies were supposed to be flown back to the country by our ground rights holders. But after they returned the trophies went missing. It is no issue and I am hopeful that it will be solved in the next couple of days,” Indian board secretary Niranjan Shah said Thursday.