1983 World Cup winner Sunil Gavaskar, one of the most respected voices in international cricket, wants to find out the 'real story' behind Asian Cricket Council's (ACC) decision to not shift Colombo phase matches of Asia Cup 2023 to a much drier Hambantota. It is predicted that rain is likely to play spoilsport in almost all remaining matches of Asia Cup 2023, scheduled to take place in Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. While there were several headlines about Colombo phase matches of Asia Cup 2023 to be moved to Hambantota, ACC decided to not make any changes to the originally scheduled venue.
During the coming week, there's a forecast of heavy rain in Colombo. Speaking on Sports Today, cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar said he felt that the players possibly may not have agreed to the venue change.
"Well, somebody should find the real story. It appears from cricketing points, that it was probably the players who didn't want to go to Hambantota. So administrators had to, at the last moment, change it from Hambantota to Colombo despite knowing Colombo could have pretty dicey weather," he said.
Gavaskar clarified he wasn't pointing to any specific team or a specific player.
"When I meant players, I didn't mean players of one team but players of all teams that were supposed to be there," he added.
As per the latest announcement made by ACC, Sri Lanka's Colombo will host the remaining five Asia Cup 2023 Super Four stage matches and the summit clash, with only IND vs PAK Super 4 fixture on Sunday (September 10) and the grand finale (September 17) having a reserve day.
74-year-old Gavaskar also sympathized with the administrators, saying that proper reason should be known before pointing fingers at anyone.
"It is easy to point fingers at administrators and they can be easily made scapegoats. It is really important to find out why despite knowing that the weather forecast of Colombo won't be good, matches were not held in Hambantota," he said.