Pakistan coach Grant Bradburn said that despite thorough preparation and planning, the lack of familiarity with the venues is one of the reasons for their defeats in the ongoing 2023 ODI World Cup. Pakistan are currently placed sixth in the points table and only has a slim chance of making it to the semi-final as well.

Ahead of the team’s must-win clash against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens, Bradburn said: “We are in a position that we didn’t want to be. We are determined at this stage of the tournament to be in control of our destiny but we’re not. That hurts the group. This tournament is on foreign conditions for us. None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one, including this one. We’ve done our homework meticulously on our opposition, on our venues that we’re playing at, and we’re prepared very, very well for each and every encounter.”

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“But the reality is that each and every venue is a new one for us and we don’t feel disadvantaged at all in terms of the knowledge, the quality, the skill, the backing that we have for this team of cricketers,” Bradburn further added.

However, the ongoing World Cup campaign is turning out to be a massive debacle for Pakistan, because of the off-field controversies as well. Notably, Pakistan came into the World Cup as one of the favourites, considering the conditions on offer. But they failed to do well.

“Ideally, preparation for a tournament like this starts four years ahead. We started six months ago and changed direction in the way that we want to play the game of cricket, especially the one-day brand,” he said.”We’ve shown some positive signs of that over the last six months. We’re proud of some of the performances that we’ve put on. It’s taking a little bit longer than we hoped, but we want to play a dynamic brand that matches the challenge of the conditions we’re playing in,” Bradburn concluded.