Aussie cricket star opens up about ‘terrifying’ 11-hour evacuation from India as missiles rained down during conflict with Pakistan

Alyssa Healy has opened up on her heart-stopping evacuation from India to escape the ongoing conflict that has dramatically changed the international cricket landscape.

The Australian women’s captain was watching her husband Mitchell Starc play in Dharamsala, in India’s far north, when the Indian Premier League match was dramatically abandoned due to missile strikes just 60km away.

‘It was a surreal experience,’ she told the Willow Talk podcast.

‘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. 

‘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.

Alyssa Healy has opened up on her dramatic evacuation from India with husband Mitchell Starc (pictured)

The sporting couple are now back in Australia after an exhausting escape from India’s far north

‘Next minute we are down being shuffled into this room which was like a holding pen. All the boys were in there.

‘Faf (South African cricketer 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.’

It was decided that the best move was to evacuate the teams the following day, but Healy said that the eleven and a half hour journey back to Dehli was also disturbing. 

‘We ended up going south west towards the border which was a little bit terrifying,’ Healy said.

‘Mitch and I have played too much Call of Duty and we’re noticing all the SAM sites that were just sitting there ready to go. They’re radar operated systems that shoot missiles at aircraft.

Healy was watching her husband’s match when the air sirens wailed at the stadium

All Australian players have now returned back to Australia, although some coaches remain

‘(We saw) a few of them on the way through in some small towns.’

All Australian players have now returned back Down Under, though some coaches -including Ricky Ponting and Brad Haddin – remain in India.

Question marks have revolved over whether the IPL, which will resume weekend, will continue to be played in India or could be played in the United Arab Emirates. The PSL has, meanwhile, been postponed indefinitely, with officials also having looked at finishing matches in the UAE. 

It is unclear, though, how many Australians will be keen to return to play

‘There was a lot of anxiety around the Australian group because we didn’t have a whole heap of information as to what was going on,’ Healy said.

‘That’s probably been the really interesting and probably the scariest part of this whole situation is the misinformation. 

‘Quite close to what’s being fought over, but we were assured everything was fine, “everything is OK. It’s miles away, the game will go ahead and everything will be fine.”

‘At the end of the day they evacuated the stadium as a precaution, which was fine, but it was probably a little bit too close for comfort.’