UNI

Mumbai, Jul 12: The Future Cup trophy, which Rahul Dravid and his boys won against South Africa, their first away series win over South Africa, has been misplaced.

The Future Cup, which India won by claiming the 3-match ODI series in Belfast, and Sachin Tendulkar's man-of-the-series award were among the 100-odd pieces of luggage that went missing on the Glasgow-London-Mumbai British Airways flight on July 5.

It has been more than a week since, and no one, including the airline, knows trophy's whereabouts. After the trophy was handed over to the Indian team, PDM Sports the percept group’s Sports marketing company, which had ground rights for the series took charge of the main trophy, the man of the series and man of the match trophies and 12 souvenir bats (personally autographed by the Indian and South African teams).

“All these were part of our baggage,” said Roland Landers, Chief operating officer of PDM Sports.

Landers said, he along with two colleagues, boarded BA-1475 from Glasgow to London on July 4. They changed flights at Heathrow airport and boarded another British Airways flight BA 199 to reach Mumbai on July 5.

“Only a dozen bags made their way through the conveyor belt,” said Saurabh Khurana, who was also on the same flight. When the passengers approached British Airways, they were told over 9,000 bags were lying at Heathrow, and their bags could be among them, said Khurana.

BA refused to elaborate when the backlog at Heathrow would be cleared. The attack at Glasgow airport on June 30 had caused a 4-hour closure, leading to series of disruptions.

“We have employed 100 extra volunteers to clear the backlog of delayed bags,” British Airways spokesperson Radhika Raikhy said in a statement.

“The Indian cricket board is also not too happy with the turn of events. This seems to have become a regular feature. Last time too the team had misplaced baggage, but not the trophy itself. BCCI is going to take up the matter with the airline,” said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.