NEWS
Follow UsSri Lanka were bundled out for just 77 in their first match of the T20 World Cup 2024 against South Africa in New York and ended up losing the match by six wickets. To make things worse for them, they now have to travel to different venues for their next three games, and as a result, the team have very less time to rest and recover, leaving them fatigued.
Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana has hit out at the scheduling, saying that it is unfair on his team. Other than Sri Lanka, Netherlands are the only other team who travel to four different venues.
"So unfair for us, we have to leave every day [after the match] because we are playing [at] four different venues," Theekshana said South Africa defeat.
"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 8pm but we got the flight at 5am. It's really unfair for us, but it doesn't matter when you play [on the field]."
"I can't say the names of the teams that have got the opportunity to stay in the same place but their hotel is only 14 minutes to the ground. Ours was like one hour and 40 minutes," he added, before admitting that Sri Lanka cancelled one of their training sessions because of fatigue from travel and the distance they had to cover to practice.
"Because even from the hotel, it's one hour and 40 minutes. Even today [match day], we had to wake up around 5am to come here."
Their opponents South Africa, however, have the luxury of playing three of their four group stage games at one venue - New York. As will India, who play three games in New York, before heading out to Florida for their fourth.
"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," Theekshana said.
"There's 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]. We woke up around 5.30 to come here, and [it plays on the mind, what] if we miss something here [while packing in a hurry]," he said.
Moreover, the spinner believes that playing their games in different venues does not allow the team to acclimatise to the conditions.
"All four games in four venues. It's hard. We didn't know [anything about the conditions here]. This was our first game in New York. Next game in Dallas, we don't know [anything about the conditions there]. Next game is in Florida where we played two games, that's the only plus point we have," Theekshana, who bowled just one over against South Africa, said.
His skipper Wanindu Hasaranga too agrees with him, but at the same time, did not completely blame Sri Lanka's defeat on the jam-packed scheduling.
"We can't say that [it affected performance], but we had tough times, especially in the last few days. We still travel one and a half hours in the morning [of game day], and we have our first round four games in four venues," he said.
Sri Lanka have a three-day break before they take on Bangladesh in their next Group D fixture on June 7 (Friday).
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