T20 World Cup: Team India unhappy with after-practice food in Sydney, skip another session because venue is far

Sydney: The general norm on the eve of a cricket match is for the teams to practice — one final session to sharpen their skills ahead of the real contest even in the shape of optional training.  

However, on Wednesday, the Indian cricket team stayed away from the nets while the Netherlands, their opponents on Thursday (October 27), sweated it out during a training session at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 

Poor food

It was a bit surprising to see the entire team missing the nets and it turned out at they were not really happy with the cold food — sandwiches and falafal — served to them at the training area on Tuesday evening. 

The Indian team management has brought the issue to International Cricket Council’s notice as the ICC is the host of the World Cup and providing food for the teams is the responsibility of the global governing body. 

Busy nets

However, there was another reason for the Indian team to take leave from the net session as the SCG was occupied by three other teams — from 10 am to 2 pm the ground was used by Bangladesh and South Africa for training and post that the Netherlands arrived for their nets. 

So, to make it more seamless, India were offered another ground at Blacktown, a Sydney suburb, for them to train. But since the ground was a good 45 minutes away from the city, the Indians decided to cancel the training altogether. 

Hence, the pre-match training of the Indian cricket team was restricted to the indoors of their hotel.