Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga slammed the decision to add a reserve day just for the Asia Cup Super Four match between India and Pakistan on Friday, saying that favouring one team will endanger cricket.
Despite citing bad weather as the cause, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) decision to add a reserve day for the Indo-Pak match in Colombo raised some questions.
"You take the Asia Cup. You have rules before the tournament, but before that one game (India v Pakistan), they changed the rules. Where is ACC? Where is ICC?," Ranatunga asked during an interaction with select media outlets.
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Ranatunga stated that modifying tournament regulations to benefit one or two teams would jeopardise the game, and he chastised the ICC and ACC for their silence.
"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," the World Cup-winning skipper fumed.
"I feel very sad for ICC and ACC because they just want to hold the positions. Former cricketers too don't open, simply because they need the bucks," he said.
Using caustic sarcasm, Ranatunga stated that he would not be shocked if India's World Cup match versus Pakistan in Ahmedabad gets a reserve day.
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"I won't be surprised if they change the rule before the India-Pakistan game (in the World Cup). ICC will keep their mouth shut and say 'OK, do it'. ICC just talks rubbish, nothing happens," he said.
Rain was predicted in Colombo during the Asia Cup, and Ranatunga criticised the ACC for not considering locations outside the city, such as Hambantota, for 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.
Ranatunga stated that world cricket should not be dominated by a single board or individual, using the Asia Cup scheduling dispute as an example.
“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,” said Ranatunga, without taking names.
(With PTI inputs)
