Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid miffed with ‘average’ practice facilities in New York for T20 World Cup; ICC responds: Report

Barring Virat Kohli, who only left for New York late Thursday evening, all members of India’s T20 World Cup squad had already assembled for the big tournament which begins from June 1 onwards.

Ahead of the start of the World Cup, those 14 players, along with the ones named in the reserves list, had their first practice session in Cantiague Park in New York on Wednesday afternoon. But captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid were reportedly miffed with the “average” training facilities provided to the team.

India will begin their campaign in the T20 World Cup on June 5 at against Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. Ahead of the opener, they will play a warm-up match at the venue against Bangladesh.

In a bid to gear up for the event, given that India last played a T20I match in January earlier this year, in the home series against Afghanistan, the players, fresh from their respective campaigns in the recently-concluded IPL 2024 tournament, attended the training session on Wednesday where they used three of the six drop-in pitches available at the venue. However, according to a report in News18, the team weren’t happy and raised their concerns with the temporary measures taken by the ICC in providing training facilities to Team India. They were also left disgruntled at the arrangements for food at the venue, with BCCI raising an issue over it as well.

“Everything is makeshift – from pitches to other facilities. Safe to say everything is very average in nature. The team has raised their concerns,” a source close to developments told the website.

However, when the International Cricket Council (ICC) was asked regarding the same, they responded saying that “there has been no complaint or concern expressed regarding the practice facilities at Cantiague Park by any team”.

What remains a major concern for the Indian team is that the makeshift venue in New York will remain their primary training ground for the better part of the league stage given that the Rohit-led side will play three group-stage matches in the city – against Ireland, Pakistan and co-hosts USA – before moving to Florid for their final match against Canada.

The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium has no training ground of its own and hence ICC turned Cantiague Park into an official practice venue for teams.