Maheesh Theekshana slams Sri Lanka’s ‘unfair’ World T20 Championship schedule | ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, 2024

Sri 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 the situation worse, they now have to travel to different venues for their next three matches and as a result, the team has very less time to rest and recover, making them tired.

Sri Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana slammed the schedule, saying it was unfair to his team. Besides Sri Lanka, the Netherlands are the only other team to travel to four different venues.

“So unfair for us, we have to leave every day (after the match) because we are playing (in) four different venues,” Theekshana said during South Africa’s defeat.

“It’s unfair. The flight we took from Florida, from Miami, we had to wait about eight hours at the airport to get the flight. And we came back. We were supposed to leave at 8 p.m. but we got the 5 a.m. flight is It’s really unfair for us, but it doesn’t matter when you’re playing (on the field).”

“I can’t give the names of the teams who had the opportunity to stay in the same place, but their hotel is only 14 minutes from the ground. Ours lasted about an hour and 40 minutes,” he said. -he added, before admitting that Sri Lanka canceled one of their training sessions due to travel fatigue and the distance they had to travel for training.

“Because even from the hotel, it takes 1 hour 40 minutes. Even today (match day), we had to wake up around 5 a.m. to get here.”

Their opponents, South Africa, however, have the luxury of playing three of their four group stage matches in one venue: New York. Just like India, who will play three matches in New York, before traveling to Florida for their fourth.

“I can’t give the names of the teams who play in the same venue, so they know what the conditions are. They play practice matches in the same venue. Nobody will understand that. We played the practice matches in Florida, and our third game will be in Florida,” Theekshana said.

“There are some things that I think everyone will think about next year because I know that this year nothing will change. Our management is also trying to fix today’s flight because we are playing, we We have to pack everything and (leave). We woke up around 5:30 p.m. to come here, and (it plays in the mind, what) if we miss anything here (by packing in a hurry)”, he said. -he declares.

Moreover, the spinner believes that playing his matches in different venues does not allow the team to acclimatize to the conditions.

“The four games in four venues. It’s tough. We didn’t know anything (about the conditions here). It was our first game in New York. The next game in Dallas, we don’t know anything (about the conditions there) “The next match will be in Florida, where we have played two matches, that is the only positive point we have,” said Theekshana, who played only one against South Africa.

Their skipper Wanindu Hasaranga also agreed with him, but at the same time, he did not entirely blame Sri Lanka’s defeat on the busy schedule.

“We can’t say that (it affected the performance), but we have had difficult times, especially in the last few days. We still travel an hour and a half in the morning (on match day), and we have our first round four games in four venues,” he said.

Sri Lanka enjoy a three-day break before facing Bangladesh in their next Group D match on June 7 (Friday).

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