Sri Lanka started the T20 World Cup with a huge loss to South Africa yesterday. Batting first, the Lankans were bowled out for just 77 runs. The 2014 champions had to rush the press conference at that match in New York. The team was in a hurry to get back to the hotel and go to the airport. After playing the match in New York, Wanindu Hasaranga’s team had to fly to Dallas, where the team will play a match against Bangladesh on the morning of June 8, Bangladesh time.
Not only this rush at the end of the match, Sri Lanka suffered even before the match. On the way from Miami to New York, the team had to wait seven hours due to a flight disaster at the Miami airport. Sri Lankan captain Wanindu Hasaranga and spinner Mahish Tikshana directly said that they were victims of unfair schedule and logistical mismanagement. Apart from this, the manager of the team, Mahinda Halangoda, said that the Sri Lankan team has complained in writing to the ICC.
However, the Sri Lankan manager also said that it was too late to complain. Halangoda thinks that there is nothing to be done about it now.
In the first phase of this year’s Twenty20 World Cup, only two teams out of 20 teams will play four matches at four venues. One of those two teams is Sri Lanka, the other is Netherlands. Both these teams are in Group D, in which the other three teams are Bangladesh, South Africa and Nepal.
While Sri Lanka and Netherlands have to play four matches at four venues, India and South Africa will play three matches each in New York. Those two teams got hotels near the stadium. On the other hand, Sri Lanka had to fly to New York at a hotel an hour and a half away from the ground. Because of the match in the morning, Sri Lanka had a lot of trouble to go to the field from that hotel in Brooklyn and back from the field.
Yesterday Sri Lanka had to leave the hotel at seven in the morning without breakfast. However, none of Hasaranga, Tikshana and Halangodad agreed to blame travel problems for the loss to South Africa.
After the match, Tikshana spoke about their pain, ‘It has become unfair for us. We have to run after every match. Because we have played in four different venues. It’s unfair. I had to wait for eight hours at the airport to catch a flight from Miami, Florida. Got an 8pm flight at 5am. It’s unfair, but it didn’t affect the game.’
Sri Lanka canceled pre-match practice due to delay in Miami. Explaining why, Tikshana said, ‘The practice venue is 1 hour 40 minutes away from the hotel. Today on the day of the match, I had to get up at 5 am to come here.
Tikshana also said that the two teams got a hotel near the field, ‘The two teams that got a hotel just 14 minutes away from the field, I didn’t name them. Our distance is 1 hour 40 minutes. Those two teams will play at the same venue, so they will know the conditions. They also played practice matches at the same venue. No one else had such an advantage. We played a warm-up match in Florida, and will play the third match there. Hope everyone will think about it next time. There is no chance to change anything this year.’
Hasaranga was asked if Sri Lanka’s poor performance was due to logistical problems. In reply, Hasaranga refused to show this as the main reason, ‘We cannot say that. It was a very difficult few days. Four matches in four venues. It’s hard. We did not know the conditions here. This was our first match in New York. The next match is in Dallas, we don’t know anything about that. The next match was in Florida, where we played two matches. That is the only good news for us.’