South Africa's Aiden Markram plays a shot during the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Australia and South Africa at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi FILE. South Africa, Sri Lanka and Ireland have had to navigate significant travel disruptions in their T20 World Cup campaigns already. Seen here: Proteas skipper Aiden Markram in action. Photo: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP
South Africa, Sri Lanka and Ireland have reportedly had to navigate significant travel disruptions as their T20 World Cup campaigns have not even yet begun.
According to antiguaobserver.com, Ireland and Sri Lanka had to contend with a seven-hour delay after their warm-up match in Florida, USA, as they awaited their chartered flight to New York.
Both teams had been scheduled to arrive in New York at 8pm on Friday, but instead only arrived at 5am on Saturday morning. The delay meant Sri Lanka’s scheduled practice session on Saturday morning had to be cancelled.
Sri Lanka also are reportedly staying at a hotel one-and-a-half hours away from the match venue. It means a three-hour round trip for training sessions for Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, teams like India have been accommodated in hotels in close vicinity to stadia and are playing at a single venue as their travel time is reduced to a minimum.
The report went on to add that South Africa, Ireland and Sri Lanka have filed complaints with the International Cricket Council (ICC) on the matter.
Sri Lanka and the Proteas clash in their opening Group D match of the tournament, at 4.30pm SA time on Monday in New York.
South Africa are expecting to welcome the return of Kagiso Rabada to the side, after he was released early from the Indian Premier League to recover from a medical issue. The SA side will be led by Aiden Markram, and are also expected to feature IPL players Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.
Straight after the match, Sri Lanka will make their way to Dallas for their next match against Bangladesh on Friday.