Sri Lanka captain Wanindu Hasaranga and spinner Maheesh Theekshana expressed their dissatisfaction over their scheduling in the T20 World Cup. After suffering a 6-wicket defeat in their campaign opener against South Africa in a low-scoring affair, Sri Lanka had to quickly wrap up their media commitments. According to ESPNcricinfo, Sri Lanka had to rush back to their hotel in Brooklyn, pack, check out and then reach at the airport for their 6 pm flight to Dallas for their next game against Bangladesh on Friday (local time).
Even before their match against South Africa, Sri Lanka were not able to train. They were held at the Miami airport for seven hours to board their delayed flight to New York.
After the game, Theekshana expressed his dissatisfaction over their scheduling and said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo, "So unfair for us, we have to leave every day [after the match] because we are playing [at] four different venues. It's unfair. The flight we took from Florida, from Miami, we had to wait like eight hours in the airport to get the flight. And we came around. We were supposed to leave at 8 pm but we got the flight at 5 am. It's really unfair for us, but it doesn't matter when you play [on the field]."
Out of the 20 teams, Sri Lanka is one of the two teams who are playing their first-round matches at four different venues. The Netherlands is the second team out of the participating teams who will play at four different venues.
Theekshana disclosed that they had to cancel their training session due to travel fatigue and had to wake up at 5 am to reach the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium for their game against South Africa.
"Yeah, that's why. Because even from the hotel, it's one hour and 40 minutes. Even today [match day], we had to wake up around 5 am to come here," Theekshana said.
Theekshana was also asked about what kind of schedule would have turned out to be fair for Sri Lanka.
"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 is in Florida. There are some things that I think that everyone will rethink about next year because I know that this year, nothing will change. Our management is trying to fix today's flight also because we are playing, we have to pack everything and [leave]," he stated.
During the post-match press conference, Hasaranga gave his take on whether logistical trouble impacted their performance against South Africa.
"We can't say that. We had a tough time the last few days. All four games in four venues. It's hard. We didn't know [anything about the conditions here]. This is our first game in New York. Next game in Dallas, we don't know [anything about the conditions there]. The next game is in Florida where we played two games, that's the only plus point we have," he said.
After bundling out on 77 against the Proteas, Sri Lanka would hope to win their next game against Bangladesh to keep themselves in contention for the Super Six stage.
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