Sri Lanka, South Africa and Ireland lodge complaint with ICC over travelling issues in 2024 T20 World Cup
A number of teams, specifically Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Ireland, have reportedly expressed their displeasure over the travelling arrangements to the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the early stages of the 2024 T20 World Cup. Ireland and Sri Lanka were recently involved in a warm-up fixture in Lauderhill, Florida, and faced trouble during travel after the match.
According to a report by Newswire.lk, Sri Lanka and Ireland were made to wait seven hours without any updates from the ICC regarding their flight to New York, where they will play their respective opening matches. This comes after the teams had to play under the sun, leading to exhaustion.
The delay led to the teams reaching New York on Saturday morning, instead of Friday evening. As a result, Sri Lanka were also forced to cancel their training session. Apart from the delay, the Wanindu Hasaranga-led side have been placed in a hotel that is one and a half hours away from the training facilities. The Indian team, on the other hand, have the luxury of residing right beside the training grounds.
The Men in Blue also have minimal travel in the group stage as they are playing three out of their four group matches in New York itself. They even had their warm-up fixture at the Nassau County International Stadium, which is believed to be a last-minute change as Florida was slated to host that encounter initially.
Sri Lanka play all four of their matches in different venues, with the last clash scheduled to be held in the Caribbean.
Sri Lanka are scheduled to play against South Africa on June 3 in New York
Sri Lanka have to switch into match mode quickly as they are scheduled to take on South Africa on June 3 in New York. The subcontinent side were handed a 20-run loss by the Netherlands in their first warm-up match, but defeated Ireland by 41 runs to come into the group stages with some momentum by their side.
The 2024 T20 World Cup kickstarted with co-hosts USA defeating Canada by seven wickets at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas on Saturday (1 June).