Shilton D'Silva and Abhishek Ambekar's flight postponed due to Cyclone 'Amphan'

Three Mumbai-based players Shilton D’Silva, Abhishek Ambekar and Ashutosh Mehta, who were plying their trade in Kolkata last season, are facing problems to return back to their home town amidst the Cyclone ‘Amphan’ which had hit West Bengal on May 20.

The flights were allowed to operate only from Monday because of the Coronavirus lockdown but the cylcone meant that a lot of flights from Kolkata had to be cancelled.

Mohun Bagan’s D’Silva and East Bengal’s Ambekar had booked their tickets to Mumbai on May 25 but unfortunately due to the cyclone, their flights were cancelled and rescheduled on May 28.

Speaking about their hardship, Shilton D’Silva told Goal, “Initially we were supposed to go by road but we changed the plan. We booked our flight on May 25 but it got postponed due to the Cyclone. We now will travel on May 28.

“The situation in Mumbai isn’t really good due to the Coronavirus (pandemic) but our family is there and we need to be with them. It has been a long time we are in Kolkata now and it is time we go back to our hometown.”

East Bengal left-back Abhishek Ambekar informed that he had even made arrangements to go into quarantine once he reached home on Monday.

“We had booked our flight on May 25. Our flight was at 3:15 PM today. Unfortunately due to the cyclone, flights cannot come and go in Kolkata at the moment. So the flight got cancelled. We could have postponed our flight or could have got a refund as well but we rebooked our flight on May 28, same time.

"I had planned to take all the necessary steps to quarantine myself after going back home. The arrangements were made but now the cyclone happened and the airport wasn’t ready by Monday.”

While the other two Mumbaikars had pre-planned their trips to head back home, Mohun Bagan star Ashutosh Mehta decided to stay back and travel once the lockdown is further relaxed in June.

“The plan was initially to travel by car but later the plan changed. I never wanted that as I thought it wasn’t safe to travel back to Mumbai at this point of time. Shilton (D’Silva) and Abhishek (Ambekar) had booked tickets on May 25 but it got postponed to May 28 due to this cyclone. I am planning to travel by the first week of June or middle of next month.”