'The conditions were not fit to play' - GT20 franchise owner levels serious accusations on tournament's logistics

The aftermath of the Global T20 Canada 2024 Eliminator between Mississauga Bangla Tigers and Toronto Nationals remains tumultuous. Notably, Tigers' captain Shakib Al Hasan forfeited the match just as the toss was about to take place, opting for a resolution by a Super Over by failing to appear for the toss. The reverberations of the decision are yet to settle as Zaffir Yasin, Tigers' franchise owner and CEO, has called out the stakeholders over the poor logistics and other related issues.

Yasin highlighted the unsuitability of the playing conditions at the CAA Centre in Brampton, emphasising that the venue was ill-prepared to host a match. He also cited additional instances where captains from various franchises had lodged complaints with the relevant stakeholders.

"First things first, the conditions were not fit to play. That was loud and clear. In the whole tournament, when other captains [Chris Lynn, Usman Khawaja, Colin Munro and Marcus Stoinis] complained that the field conditions were not fit to play, the tournament committee, the technical committee accepted and the match referee all accepted that. And they were right," Yasin to;d Cricket.com.

He further highlighted some significant concerns, including a deviation from standard cricket practices regarding boundary dimensions, describing the layout as "zig-zag" on one side of the ground.

"Plus, there were other issues. The officials altered the size of the boundary after the official start time of the match. And additionally, they were decreasing the boundary size without an official measurement. They did it by themselves; they had no idea what they were doing. The ground took up a zig-zag structure on one side,” mentioned Yasin.

Also Read: Global T20 Canada 2024: Shakib Al Hasan's Bangla Tigers Mississauga gets eliminated after opting not to participate in Super Over

This rule was made one day before on WhatsApp: Yasin

Further elaborating on the absurdity of the events of August 9, he pointed out that the official confirmation was disseminated via WhatsApp and not through any professional channel. He also criticised the move of deciding the game through a Super Over in the event of a five-over-per-side clash not being possible due to inclement weather, which was a significant deviation from the ICC Playing Conditions.

"One day before the match, and also on the day of the game, they shared a message on WhatsApp saying that a Super Over will be played in case a five-over game isn’t possible. Have you ever seen a situation where a match is decided by a Super Over because it’s raining heavily? This rule was made one day before on WhatsApp. That’s a significant change in the playing conditions which should have been discussed with the technical committee, the owners and Cricket Canada because this is a whole different rule altogether," added a frustrated Yasin.

It is noteworthy that despite the match being awarded to the Nationals, the Tigers arrived at the venue on Saturday morning, prepared to contest Qualifier 2. They were subsequently informed by officials that no new requests would be entertained. The Tigers ended the group-stage higher than the Nationals, and hence would have felt hard done by with what had gone down the other day, especially considering how Qualifier 1 at the same venue's result was resolved.