Is ICC treating Sri Lanka badly?
Collected
|| Desk Report ||
Sri Lanka came down heavily on ICC, complaining that the cricket's governing body treated them badly in various ways.
Sri Lanka team manager Ashantha de Mel said they have sent a letter to ICC regarding this ill-treatment.
Sri Lanka complained that ICC has given green pitches only in Sri Lanka matches. Sri Lanka has played two matches in Cardiff, against New Zealand and Afghanistan. And these two matches were low scoring matches.
Green wickets are the main reason behind the low scoring matches, thinks Sri Lanka. The rain has washed out two of their games against Pakistan and Bangladesh. And ICC also prepared green pitches in these two matches.
But ICC prepared sporting wickets in Cardiff and Bristol for other teams, said De Mel.
“This is a World Cup where the top ten countries are taking part and I feel that all the participants should be treated equally,” said De Mel.
“What we have found out is that for the four matches we have played so far at Cardiff and Bristol the ICC has prepared a green pitch, and at the same venues where the other countries have played the pitches are brown and favorable for high scoring,” pointed out De Mel.
Sri Lanka will be playing against Australia on June 16. The match will take place at The Oval and ICC once again prepared green pitch there. This is totally unfair as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, De Mel fumed.
“The pitch being prepared for our match against Australia on Saturday here at the Oval is green. It is not (a case of) sour grapes that we are complaining but it is very unfair on the part of the ICC that they prepare one type of wicket for certain teams and another type for others,” said De Mel.
Not only this, Sri Lanka manager also criticized ICC about the practice facilities and hotel accommodation.
“Even the practice facilities provided at Cardiff were unsatisfactory. Instead of three nets, they gave us only two and the hotel we were put up at Bristol did not have a swimming pool, which is very essential for every team for the fast bowlers especially to relax their muscles after practice. The hotels that Pakistan and Bangladesh were put up at Bristol had swimming pools,” pointed out De Mel.
Sri Lanka manager De Mel clarified that , Sri Lanka board won’t stop sending letters to ICC, until they get a reply regarding this matter.
“We wrote to the ICC listing all these shortcomings four days ago but so far we have not had any response from them. We will continue to write to them until we get a reply,” he said.
