The Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to resume on May 17 (Saturday) after being briefly suspended due to rising cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan. The Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals match was cancelled over security concerns with only 10.1 overs being possible in the match at Dharamsala. With Dharamsala located close to the border, a special train was arranged to transport players safely to New Delhi. Australia Women’s team captain Alyssa Healy, who was in Dharamsala to support her husband Mitchell Starc and the Delhi Capitals, has revealed the terrifying events of that night in Dharamsala.
During an appearance on The Willow Talk Podcast, Alyssa Healy described the Dharamsala incident as surreal, recalling how light towers suddenly went out and their group was urgently told to evacuate, sensing the seriousness from the staff member’s alarmed expression.
“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,” Healy said on The Willow Talk Podcast.
She recounted the panic in Dharamsala when they were suddenly evacuated without explanation after nearby missile strikes caused a blackout. With no information, they were moved to a holding area with players like Faf du Plessis—some unprepared—and later rushed back to the hotel amid chaos.
“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,” she added.
“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.
