Middle East conflict: Stars stranded in Dubai as West Asia erupts

TOI journalist’s first person account from Dubai — the city under siegeDUBAI: The Irish Village, with its cluster of restaurants and pubs, was buzzing last Sunday. There was live music and tennis played on the big screen. The 70s hit Jolene, Jolene drifted across the grounds. Nestled on the edge of the Dubai Duty Free Stadium, home to the WTA 1000 and ATP 500 events that had electrified crowds for the past fortnight, the eateries had been a magnet for fans soaking in the final days of top-tier tennis in the desert.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Just 24 hours after the last ball was struck, however, Al Garhoud, a stone’s throw from Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest hub for international travel, feels eerily deserted. A space that had been a stage for movement and noise now resembles a ghost town.All this against the backdrop of sharply rising tensions in West Asia after coordinated US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered widespread Iranian missile and drone retaliation. It led to major airspace closures and had hubs such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha grappling with thousands of cancelled or suspended flights.Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu on Sunday described a “tense and scary” ordeal at the Dubai International Airport, where she and her Indonesian coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama were stranded after an explosion occurred close to the area where they were staying amid escalating tensions.I arrived here to cover the tournament, expecting to catch a late-evening flight home on Saturday.Instead, that flight was cancelled, and the city has turned into an unexpected holding bay, with thousands of stranded travellers anxiously refreshing airline apps and scrambling for alternatives from a region where, as of now, every route seems blocked.Even world-class players such as Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev now find themselves stalled with the Indian Wells Masters set to begin on March 4. Rublev, a semifinalist in Dubai, cut a solitary figure as he walked through the hotel lobby in Al Garhoud, perhaps wishing he had headed to the airport soon after his loss to Tallon Griekspoor on Friday.Conversations with fellow travellers and UAE residents all revolve around the same question, “Did you hear?” Drones, missiles, and the escalating tension dominate every exchange. Saturday night brought a restless, anxious few hours, punctuated by government alarms blaring at midnight. When the alarm sounded, the instinct wasn’t to evacuate, rather sit in stunned silence, wondering what would come next.Elsewhere, regional sport has been further disrupted by the decision of the England and Wales Cricket Board to cancel the England Lions’ 50-over match against Pakistan Shaheens and postpone the England women’s training camp in Abu Dhabi.