The cricket teams of Sri Lanka, South Africa and Ireland contesting the T20 World Cup are reported to have been subjected to travel headaches and frustration during their transfer from Florida to New York in the USA yesterday.
It is reported that the Sri Lankan team was stuck at the airport for several hours without a connecting flight from Florida to New York where the team is scheduled to play against South Africa in their opening match on Monday.
The disruption in travel schedules forced the players to miss out on a practice session according to a team source and the team also had to put up with accommodation at a hotel nearly two hours drive away from the venue.
Sri Lanka according to the match schedule is slated to fly out to Dallas for their second match against Bangladesh on June 8 a few hours after playing against South Africa in New York on June 3 leaving the players with very little time to recover.
Meanwhile India and the West Indies will move out as firm favourites at the T20 World Cup which opens today in the USA and the West Indies with 20 teams in the fray.
It will be the ninth T20 World Cup event in 17 years and the fifth World Cup for cricket in five years in both the T20 and the 50-over game that also puts teams in a now-or-never situation like never before.
As many as nine non-Test playing nations are in the fray and two of them the United States of America and Canada will raise the curtain in the opening match.
Namibia, Oman, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Nepal and the Netherlands are the other ‘outside’ teams that join defending champions England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ireland and Afghanistan in the fray.
India have not won the T20 World Cup since becoming the inaugural winners in 2007 but are touted as one of the favourites that move into the arena with the best all-round side and their players basking in the spectacle of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that ended last week. Pundits are also not writing off the host nation West Indies who have won the event in 2012 and 2016 and will have overwhelming crowd support to back their cause.
Although England are the defending champions the experts are not giving them enough marks to proceed to the semi finals with Australia and South Africa to make the final four.
