Sri Lanka stars slam T20 World Cup scheduling after loss to South Africa: So unfair

Sri Lanka captain Wanindu Hasaranga and spinner Maheesh Theekshana lashed out the T20 World Cup 2024 scheduling which sees them play in 4 different venues. Sri Lanka lost their first match of the campaign to South Africa, which was played in New York. After this, they will play Bangladesh in Dallas on June 7 and then head to Florida to face Nepal four days later.

Sri Lanka will end their group stage against Netherlands in St. Lucia on June 16 and Theekshana said the scheduling has been unfair to them as they have to travel immediately after each game. The spinner said that they had a delay in their flight from Florida to New York about like 8 hours and for the match against South Africa, they had to leave from their hotel at 5 am.

“So unfair for us, we have to leave every day (after the match) because we are playing (at) four different venues,” Theekshana said. “The flight we took from Florida, from Miami, we had to wait like eight hours in the airport to get the flight. We were supposed to leave at 8pm but we got the flight at 5am. It’s really unfair for us, but it doesn’t matter when you play.”

“Even from the hotel, it (the practice venue) is one hour and 40 minutes. Even today (for the match against South Africa), we had to wake up around 5am to come here,” said Theekshana.

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Theekshana said that some of the teams are getting to play all their matches at the same venue and their hotel is also close to the ground.

” (Some teams) have got the opportunity to stay in the same place but their hotel is only 14 minutes to the ground. I can’t say the (names of the) teams that are playing in the same venue, so they know what the conditions are like. They’re playing practice games at the same venue. No one will get that.”

“We played the practice games in Florida, and our third game’s in Florida. There’s some things that I think that everyone will rethink about next year because I know that this year, nothing will change,” said Theekshana.

What did Hasaranga say?

Hasaranga said it had been a tough few days for the former champions because of their travel schedule.

“We had a tough time last few days. All four games in four venues. It’s hard. We didn’t know…This is our first game in New York. Next game in Dallas…Next game is in Florida where we played two games, that’s the only plus point we have,” said Hasaranga.

Sri Lanka were beaten by South Africa in their first game and will be aiming to bounce back against Bangladesh.