India T20 captain Rohit Sharma didn’t hold back at the pre-match press conference before India’s semifinal clash against England today at 8 pm IST. 

Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has alleged the International Cricket Council (ICC) favoured India to play the semi-final in Guyana, so, the Afghanistan South Africa semifinal was scheduled in Trinidad.

A semifinal in Guyana would mean India will be playing at a favourable time for the viewership back home.

According to Vaughan, this arrangement gave no time to Afghanistan to practise or get accustomed to the venue. Notably, Afghanistan scored the lowest-ever score in T20 World Cup Semifinals this morning (IST) — 56/10, which was chased down by South Africa inside nine overs and nine wickets in hand.

Replying to the allegations of India knowing about their semifinal venue beforehand, Rohit said, “I don’t think it’s an advantage – a lot of these players have played in different types of venues. I’m sure a lot of these English cricketers have played in this venue. So, I don’t see this as an advantage. 

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to play good cricket to win a cricket game. That’s how I look at it,” said Sharma.

Michael Vaughan, on his X, had criticised the scheduling of the T20 World Cup semifinals, alleging that the whole tournament is planned to favour India and is ‘unfair’ to other teams.

Vaughan claimed that Afghanistan’s semifinal should have been scheduled in Guyana, where India will take on defending champions England later in the day.

“Surely this Semi should have been the Guyana one .. but because the whole event is geared towards India it’s so unfair on others..,” Vaughan wrote on X.

Vaughan earlier stated that Afghanistan did not get enough time to prepare for their first-ever semi-final due to the flight delay and travelling.

“So Afghanistan qualify for the WC semi winning in St Vincent on Monday night .. 4 hr flight delay on Tues to Trinidad so no time to practise or get accustomed to a new venue .. utter lack of respect to players i am afraid.. #T20WorldCup2024,” he posted on X.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)