Ranatunga reacts furiously over ACC’s decision to add a selective reserve day for the Indo-Pak Asia Cup clash targets BCCI as well

Karan Agarwal September 16, 2023

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Former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga has reacted furiously over ACC’s decision for selective reserve day addition for Indo- Pak Asia Cup clash in the Super Four stages of the tournament. For those who are unaware of the news ACC added a reserve day for the India- Pakistan Asia Cup clash in the middle of the tournament while there wasn’t any change in the schedule of other matches.

The decision was criticized by everyone in the cricketing circle barring the broadcasters who had the last say in the matter as the high-octane clash would fetch them a good amount of money.

Ranatunga speaks

Reacting to the development the former Sri Lankan captain has targeted the ACC and BCCI “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. “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.

Former Sri Lanka Captain Arjuna Ranatunga said "ICC is toothless and unprofessional in front of a powerful board. Even SLC and BCB surrendered for changing rules for one team. It's because BCCI or one particular person is powerful. Sharad Pawar and Dalmiya were focussed on… pic.twitter.com/aKoHPtRuG6
— Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) September 15, 2023

Targets BCCI

Ranatunga also said that he won’t be surprised if a reserve day is added to the India- Pakistan clash in the World Cup “So I will not be surprised if, for the World Cup, they have a separate rule for the Indo-Pak game. This is bad. India is powerful no doubt but ICC officials are quite comfortable, and happy putting on coats, ties, and hankies and going to meetings. ICC will keep their mouth shut and say ‘OK, do it’. ICC just talks rubbish, nothing happens,” he said.

The former captain who represented Sri Lanka in 93 Tests and 269 ODIs between 1982 and 2000, slammed the former cricketers for keeping silent. “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.