The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come under fire as players from Sri Lanka, Ireland and South Africa faced problems while traveling from Florida to New York ahead of their 2024 T20 World Cup matches, a Sri Lankan media outlet reported. . news wire on Saturday.
Sri Lanka and Ireland played the warm-up match in the extreme weather of Florida on Friday and after the match ended, both teams waited for almost seven hours without any update provided by the ICC on their delayed charter flight.
The teams were scheduled to land in New York at 8 pm on Friday, but arrived in the city at 5 am on Saturday. The delay proved costly for Sri Lanka as they had to cancel their practice session for the following day.
As if the travel issues were not enough, Sri Lanka have been accommodated in a hotel that is 1.5 hours away from their practice field, which would have an impact on their practice sessions.
On the other hand, teams like India have their hotels near the training grounds and three of their four-round matches are in New York.
According to the outlet, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Ireland have already filed a complaint with the ICC about this horrible logistics and organizational planning.
The Islanders will have to leave immediately for Dallas after playing their first World Cup game against South Africa on June 3 in New York, which would mean no rest period.
With such atrocious planning for these teams, questions are being raised about the ICC's impartiality as apart from their three group matches, India will also play their warm-up match against Bangladesh in New York.
World T20 2024 groups
Group A: India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada, United States
Group B: England, Australia, Namibia, Scotland, Oman
Group C: New Zealand, West Indies, Afghanistan, Uganda, Papua New Guinea
Group D: South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Netherlands, Nepal