"ICC owes an apology" - Sanjay Manjrekar extremely furious at governing body ahead of T20 World Cup 2024 final

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has lashed out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the poor pitches in the knockout stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. He claimed that the governing body owes an apology to fans because of their poor preparations. 

The T20 World Cup 2024 is about to conclude as just one showdown is left. India will be taking on South Africa in the final of the tournament. The match will take place on Saturday (29th June) at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown Barbados. 

However, ahead of the final of the T20 World Cup, the International Cricket Council has come under serious scanner for the kind of pitches that they prepared for the semi-finals. In the first game between South Africa and Afghanistan, the wicket seemed terrible for the batters. 

The batting seemed quite tough as South African bowlers were all over the Afghanistan batters. The Rashid Khan-led side was bundled out for just 55 runs as the pitch offered a lot of moments and made the batters look clueless. 

On the other hand, in the game between India and England, it was a paradise for spinners. The surface also had very little bounce and few of the balls kept quite low, which made it difficult for batters to score runs freely.

India batters apart from Rohit Sharma (57) and Suryakumar Yadav (47) struggled to get going as England spinners took full advantage of the conditions. After that, it was all about India spinners as they wreaked havoc across the England batting lineup and bundled them out for just 103 runs

This is also not the ideal kind of service - Sanjay Manjrekar on pitches for semi-final 

With pitches for the semi-final not being great, many fans and pundits have lashed out at the ICC and the latest to join the bandwagon is former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar. The cricketer-turned-commentator didn't go easy on the governing body. 

Sanjay Manjrekar said that the pitch during the game between South Africa and Afghanistan was embarrassing and the International Cricket Council needs to apologize to everyone for the kind of pitches that they have provided. 

While talking about the pitch for the game between India and England, Sanjay Manjrekar pointed out how few balls stayed very low. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo about the same, he elaborated: 

"The first semi-final, the second half when South Africa was batting was embarrassing. And I think, as I've said before, ICC owes an apology to fans, and channel partners, for the kind of pitch that was provided. 

"Because that is one of the easier controllables, you know, getting a pitch right.  And even this one, we had a couple of balls almost shooting along the ground. So this is also not the ideal kind of service. So, disappointed," he concluded.

It remains to be seen what kind of pitch will be there for the final of the T20 World Cup 2024 between India and South Africa.