Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana has hit out at the gruelling schedule for the team from island nation at the T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka are one of the only two teams playing all their four group matches at four different venues. They are next scheduled to face Bangladesh on June 7 in Dallas while their last two matches against Nepal and Netherlands will take place on June 11 and 16 in Florida and St Lucia respectively.
Theekshana has called this schedule for Sri Lanka 'unfair' while also calling out the travelling ordeal the team had to go through all these days. Sri Lanka's hotel in New York is a staggering one hour and 40 minutes away from the stadium while they also had to deal with delayed flights. "So unfair for us, we have to leave every day [after the match] because we are playing [at] four different venues.
"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]," Theekshana said after the match.
The spin bowler also pointed out that a few teams have got the luxury of playing at the same venue for the majority of the group stage matches before stating that Sri Lanka also had to cancel one of their training session to avoid fatigue due to travel. "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. 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 further said.
