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Australia women’s cricket captain Alyssa Healy has shared chilling details of the chaos that unfolded in Dharamsala last week, when rising tensions between India and Pakistan brought the IPL 2025 to an unexpected halt.
The incident occurred on May 8 during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 fixture between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals.
The game was midway through the 11th over when floodlights suddenly went out at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium. Fans were asked to evacuate, and shortly after, the match was suspended.
The next morning, the BCCI announced an immediate suspension of IPL 2025. However, following a ceasefire agreement on May 10, the board confirmed that the tournament will resume on May 17.
Speaking on The Willow Talk podcast, Alyssa Healy, who was in Dharamsala to support her husband, Australia pacer Mitchell Starc, described the disturbing scenes that unfolded.
“It was a surreal experience,” she said. “All of a sudden, a couple of the light towers went out and we were just sitting there up the top…”
“The guy who wrangles our group came up, and his face was white. He said, ‘We need to go right now.’ Another guy grabbed one of the children and repeated the same. We had no idea what was going on.”
The players and their families were rushed into a holding room inside the stadium.
“All the boys were in there. Faf (du Plessis) didn’t even have shoes on. We were all just looking around, stressed,” she added.
“I asked Mitch [Mitchell Starc] what was happening, and he said, ‘The town 60 km away just got hit by missiles.’ The Dharamsala stadium was basically a beacon, so they shut the power.”
What followed was a hasty and anxiety-filled evacuation. Players, support staff, franchise officials, and broadcasters were bundled into vans and later escorted out of Dharamsala via a special Vande Bharat train arranged by BCCI in coordination with the Ministry of Railways.
Healy recalled that the journey to safety wasn’t any less tense.
“We ended up going southwest towards the border, which was a little bit terrifying,” she further stated.
“Mitch and I have played too much Call of Duty, so we were noticing all the surface-to-air missile sites. A few were just sitting there in small towns, radar-operated systems ready to go.”
