Internet Desk: Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza joined his Pakistan counterpart Sarfraz Ahmed in questioning the scheduling of the ongoing Asia Cup. The fixtures released by Asian Cricket Council (ACC) will see Bangladesh play back-to-back matches.
With two group matches yet to be played, ACC released the schedule for the Super Four with the top two teams from Group A and Group B yet to be ascertained. As per schedule, it was supposed to be A1 vs B2 and A2 vs B1 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively. The revised schedule, announced after India’s win over Hong Kong, will see India play all their matches in Dubai irrespective of the other teams’ positions in the groups. Sri Lanka’s losses to Bangladesh and Afghanistan resulted in the need of the fixture switch with both the sides yet to play each other.
As per the schedule for the Super Four’s, India and Pakistan will play Bangladesh and Afghanistan, respectively, on Friday to get things underway. This means Bangladesh, who play Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, will have to travel to Dubai for the fixture against India.
“It is very disappointing,” Mashrafe said to reporters on Wednesday.
He went on to add, “Basically what has happened is that we were made the second team in Group B even before we played the last game.”We came here with a plan. We would play Sri Lanka first and if we won and played well we would be group champions and play the runners-up of Group A. But this morning we heard that we are already Group B runners-up regardless of whether we win or lose tomorrow. So of course it is disappointing.