 "Arjuna Ranatunga")
Asia Cup, which started with controversy, is going to end with one too as former Sri Lanka captain Rajuna Ranatunga has slammed the international cricket bodies- International Cricket Council (ICC) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for allowing India to act as per its whims and fancies.
Ranatunga, who won Sri Lanka’s only 50-over World Cup was furious with the ACC for giving only the India vs Pakistan game in the Asia Cup a reserve day while other games functioned normally as per pre-decided schedule where there was no mention of a reserve day. The reserve day was added after the group stage match between the two arch-rivals was washed out in Pallekele.
Check India vs Sri Lanka live updates in Asia Cup 2023 final here
Check India vs Sri Lanka live updates in Asia Cup 2023 final here
"ICC is a toothless tiger. They act very unprofessionally. I think they are the ones who should protect cricket. Ultimately cricket should be controlled by the ICC and not by a country. In the Asia Cup, you had rules and you changed rules for one game. So where is ACC? Where is ICC?," said Ranatunga said in a sarcastic tone.
"So I will not be surprised if, for the World Cup, they have a separate rule for Indo-Pak game. This is bad. India is powerful no doubt but then ICC officials are quite comfortable, happy putting on coat and tie and hanky and going to meetings," he added.
Talking about the rule change in mid-tournament Ranatunga, 59, said, “I am not very comfortable when you have a tournament, where you change rules for one team. You are looking at a disaster in the future.”
Why is reserve day in question for Super4 games?
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Ranatunga’s comments were in the light of no provision for a reserved day for the Super4 match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka which eventually became a semi-final. If that was washed out, scenarios could have changed drastically. Or if the India-Pakistan match didn’t have reserve day and India still lost to Bangladesh, India might not even have played the final.
Ranatunga criticised the ACC for not exploring venues outside the city such as Hambantota to conduct the Super 4 and final matches.
"Why did they play in Colombo when you have places like Hambantota? That ground was built to play cricket during the rainy season. And you come to Colombo to play in the Asia Cup. What is ACC doing?" said Ranatunga.
BCCI cannot dictate terms
Lashing out at other boards for not criticizing the all-supreme attitude of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Ranatunga said, “Why do the other countries allow that (poor scheduling) to happen? Because the BCCI is powerful, or one particular person is powerful. No, it can't happen like that. They should have given an extra day for all the games if that was the case.”
Asia Cup final reserve day
The Asia Cup final between India and Sri Lanka will have a reserved day as was decided while making provisions for a reserve day for the India-Pakistan match.
