'ICC is a toothless tiger': Arjuna Ranatunga slams global body, ACC over reserve day for IND vs PAK game

Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga is the latest to criticise the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) decision to have a reserve day only for India vs Pakistan game during the 2023 Asia Cup Super 4 stage. The high-octane clash between the arch-rivals was completed over two days thanks to the reserve day. The 228-run victory helped India in reaching the final, while Pakistan later went on to lose to Sri Lanka and get knocked out of the Asia Cup. Had there been no reserve day, India and Pakistan would have shared the points due to a rain washout on the first day of the match and India could have been the team to get knocked out as they lost to Bangladesh in their last Super 4 game. India played backup players against Bangladesh and had it been a must-win game a full-strength side would have played possibly leading to a different result, but the point is that having reserve day for only two teams and one match sets a dangerous precedent in world cricket. Ranatunga has slammed ICC for having no influence over these decisions which put other teams at a disadvantage. “ICC is a toothless tiger. They act very unprofessionally. I think they are the ones who should protect cricket. Ultimately cricket should be controlled by ICC and not by a country. In Asia Cup, you had rules and you changed rules for one game. So where is ACC? Where is ICC?,” said Ranatunga. He also said that a reserve day should have been granted to all the games. “I am not very comfortable when you have a tournament, where you change rules for one team. You are looking at a disaster in the future,” the 1996 World Cup-winning captain added. “Why do the other countries allow that (poor scheduling) to happen? Because the BCCI is powerful, or one particular person is powerful. No, it can’t happen like that. They should have given an extra day for all the games if that was the case." The former Sri Lanka captain said that there’s a possibility a separate rule will be made for the India-Pakistan game in the World Cup which is scheduled to take place on 14 October in Ahmedabad. “So I will not be surprised if, for World Cup, they have a separate rule for Indo-Pak game. This is bad. India is powerful no doubt but then ICC officials are quite comfortable, happy putting coat, tie and hanky and going to meetings. ICC will keep their mouth shut and say ‘OK, do it’. ICC just talks rubbish, nothing happens,” he said. Ranatunga, who played 93 Tests and 269 ODIs between 1982 and 2000 for Sri Lanka, was also critical of former cricketers who don’t speak up against ICC and ACC. “I feel very sad for ICC and ACC because they just want to hold the positions. Former cricketers too don’t open, simply because they need the bucks,” he said.