Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana hit out at the gruelling World Cup schedule that his team has been put through, calling it ‘unfair’. Sri Lanka are one of only two teams (other is Netherlands) who are playing their four group stage matches in four different venues. It doesn’t end there – Sri Lanka’s hotel in New York where they opened their campaign against South Africa on June 3 was an hour and 40 minutes away from the venue. The Asian side have also had to deal with delayed flights and hours spent at airports.
“So unfair for us, we have to leave every day [after the match] because we are playing [at] four different venues,” Theekshana said after his team’s defeat to South Africa. “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,” Theekshana said.
Theekshana also reckoned that playing each game in different venues robs Sri Lanka of being able to know or assess conditions quickly. Their game against South Africa was the first of the World Cup in New York where they opted to bat first and folded for 77 in a six-wicket defeat.
“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 said.
Their opposition on June 3 – South Africa – have the luxury of playing two more games in New York while India – who begin their campaign against Ireland on June 5, will also play three fixtures at the same venue before heading to Florida for their last of the group stage.
“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 also revealed how the Sri Lankan team has had to scamper around on travel days as well as pack up quickly and leave after they’ve just played a match.
“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.
Sri Lanka captain Wanindu Hasaranga did not want to attribute all of these logistical nightmares to his team’s poor performance against South Africa but still echoed Theekshana’s thoughts about how tough his team have it at the World Cup.
“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 turnaround time before their next game against Bangladesh on June 7 in Dallas. After that, they travel to Florida for their game against Nepal on June 11 before heading to St. Lucia for their last group-stage match against Netherlands on June 16.
