Mumbai: The last cricketers to get a ticker tape welcome were Ajit Wadekar and his boys on their return from the Caribbean, after their historic win over the West Indies. That was 1971.
Now history is repeating itself as 26-year-old Mahendra Singh Dhoni brings home the first ever Twenty20 World Cup to India. And Mumbai is gearing up to receive Team India in style — with a huge victory parade from the airport to the Wankhede Stadium.
BCCI President Sharad Pawar and Dilip Vengsarkar have arrived ahead of the team. The plane carrying the team has already landed in Mumbai just a few minutes later and now the cavalcade carrying Dhoni and his boys has started leaving the airport.
The cavalcade will move towards the Bandra junction.
The cavalcade will then go through Mahim before heading off towards Haji Ali, taking the Peddar road en route to Wankhede Stadium where they are scheduled to reach by 1030 hrs IST.
Says BCCI CAO, Ratnakar Shetty, "We have invited everyone in Mumbai to come and join us in the felicitation ceremony and we hope people will turn up in great numbers."
At the Wankhede Stadium the team will be felicitated and thousands of cricket fans are expected to show up in support.
Most of the players will then leave for their respective home towns except for those selected for the first three One Day Internationals against Australia, who will join the squad on the morning of September 28 in Bangalore.
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