Flight muddle forces Sri Lanka to miss practice session ahead of opening game

• Meet South Africa in crucial T20 World Cup fixture today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka cricketers were forced to miss their last practice session ahead of today’s opening ICC T20 World Cup fixture against South Africa due to a flight mess up that saw them arrive at their destination from Florida to New York several hours later than scheduled.

“There was a small mess up in the chartered flight and we arrived in New York on Sunday morning instead of Saturday evening. Because of the delay we had to skip practices which were scheduled for Sunday,” said Sri Lanka team manager Mahinda Halangoda.

“The plane they had allocated was too small so we couldn’t get the baggage in. They allocated another one which had met with a small accident, so they had to get a third one. That was the delay.”

“The boys are very disappointed at what has happened. Our flight delay was a huge disappointment. When you are supposed to come to New York by 7 or 8 in the night we came at around 6 in the morning the next day. That is why we had to give them a day off (Sunday), time for them to recover because they have been practicing for long periods.”

It was not only the Sri Lanka team that was travelling in the flight but two other sides South Africa and Ireland as well.

Halangoda said that Sri Lanka had taken up the flight delay with the ICC and complained to them.

“We have addressed the issue to the ICC and they said they will look into it and ensure that it does not happen again. I don’t think it was done with any intention because there were two other teams travelling with us.”

Regarding today’s match against South Africa, Halangoda said that it was crucial for Sri Lanka to start off with a win. 

“A win will give a tremendous boost to the team. The boys are determined. It is the toughest game for us in the group, not that other teams are not good. In T20 cricket anything can happen, it depends on the day.”

“The wicket for tomorrow is similar to what Bangladesh and India played in their warm-up match on Saturday. It’s not the same wicket but a different one. There are four (drop-in) wickets, we are playing on the corner wicket.”

A concern for Sri Lanka is their top order batting which has seen them lose at least three wickets inside the first power play in their two warm-up games against the Netherlands and Ireland.

“The players have been spoken to about it. The problem is the wickets are slightly different to what we get in Sri Lanka so they are still getting used to it,” said Halangoda.

Sri Lanka is at a disadvantage when compared to some of the other teams because they have to play their four group games at four different venues. “That is beyond our control.”

Another disadvantage that Sri Lanka has got to put up with is the distance from their hotel to the ground.

“We have another challenge, the distance from the ground to the hotel is very long, more than 1½ hours travel because of the traffic,” said Halangoda.

In stark contrast a team like India has been accommodated in hotels near the stadium and enjoy the convenience of playing the majority of their games at a single venue, thereby avoiding extensive travel hassles.