In light of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy series, the Jharkhand cricket team, including its skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had a miraculous escape when a massive fire broke out in a shopping complex adjoining their five star hotel in Dwarka area in the early hours of Friday.
The mishap led to the postponement of the Vijay Hazare Trophy semi final against Bengal.
According to a senior fire official, the incident took place at the ITC Welcome Hotel in Southwest Delhi where former Indian Cricket Team captain Dhoni along with his teammates was having breakfast at the team hotel.
At the time of the fire mishap, Dhoni was present on the ninth floor while other cricketers from the Jharkhand team were living across rooms on the seventh to ninth floor.
"A total of 546 guests apart from the hotel staff were rescued by the fire fighters. The fire broke out in the first floor of the building which houses Reliance Trends and from fifth floor upwards, ITC Welcome Hotel has their rooms. Apart from the Cricketers from the Jharkhand team, cricketers from the Tamil Nadu team who had their match on March 16 too were evacuated from the hotel premises," added the senior fire official.
The BCCI, in a statement, said all the players and match officials are unhurt and safe.
"Yes, it was scary as a fire broke out early in the morning. We were evacuated and brought to the ground. luckily, the main cricket kits were kept at the Palam ground only so they are safe. Now that we are shifting, I can confirm that there has been no damage to our personal belongings also," Jharkhand coach Rajeev Kumar said.
A Jharkhand player said, "When we were having breakfast at the restaurant... suffocating smell of the smoke alarmed us. We ran for our lives."
Both teams were at the ground but since the Jharkhand players were mentally disturbed, the BCCI had to give them a day's time to get into a proper frame of mind, a BCCI match official said.
The match that was supposed to be held at the Air Force ground in Palam has been rescheduled at Feroz Shah Kotla on Saturday after match referee Sanjay Verma announced the postponement.
A senior official from the Delhi Fire Services said, "A call was received around 6.30 am about a fire breaking out at Welcome Hotel. As many as thirty fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was doused by 9.45 am".