‘This Is Unacceptable Because..’, Former India Cricketer Lashes Out At ICC After New York Stadium’s Big Reveal

Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary has said that the International Cricket Council’s decision to prepare a track and outfield like the one at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York is unacceptable, since they had so much time to prepare a quality one. A paltry 157 runs were scored between Sri Lanka and South Africa in 36 overs.

The drop-in track at the stadium proved to be a nightmare for the Sri Lanka batters who struggled to time the ball while the outfield was slow as well. Not just the Lankans, but even the South African batters took 17 overs to chase down the lowly 78-run target.

The 77 runs were Sri Lanka’s lowest-ever total in T20Is and the fifth-lowest by a full-member country in the World Cup. South Africa chased down the target in 17 overs for the loss of four wickets, where they managed to score just six fours.

“I say it blatantly: This is unacceptable because if a batter hits a shot along the ground, the ball does not even travel, and that is because the amount of sand used is more. It will be difficult for teams to score runs. It is not possible to hit sixes consistently,” Tiwary said while speaking on Cricbuzz.

“This is unacceptable from the ICC because when there is a World Cup going on, and when you had time to prepare for it, they should have made a proper outfield as well,” Tiwary added.

The next match at this venue is going to be between India and Ireland and the condition of the pitch and the outfield raises concerns for both teams, given how tough run-scoring was throughout the game.

The drop-in track at the stadium received criticism from both side’s skippers. Sri Lanka were shot out for their lowest T20 total of 77 and South Africa had to struggle before securing a six wicket victory over the Lankans.

“The batting was a little up and down… quite a tough wicket but we found some way to score runs. It’s a tough one from a batting perspective,” South Africa skipper Aiden Markram said at the post-match presentation.

“You try to take the pitch out of it, but if the ball misbehaves or there’s low bounce, it’s just one of those things and hopefully we can take some learnings out of it,” added the captain, who scored 12 runs off 14 deliveries.