{"id":66578,"date":"2025-02-26T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=66578"},"modified":"2025-02-26T15:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:38:15","slug":"india-slammed-for-one-venue-farce-in-champions-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/sports\/india-slammed-for-one-venue-farce-in-champions-trophy\/","title":{"rendered":"India slammed for one-venue \u2018farce\u2019 in Champions Trophy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former cricketers and pundits have slammed India\u2019s \u201cundeniable\u201d advantage of playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai, while the other seven teams have to shuttle between three venues in Pakistan and the UAE.<\/p>\n

India refused to travel to hosts Pakistan for the 50-over tournament, because of security concerns and political tensions, and are playing all their matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.<\/p>\n

A stand-off between the rivals lasted for more than a month, leaving plans for the tournament in jeopardy until the Pakistan board finally agreed on a compromise with the International Cricket Council.<\/p>\n

The deal means Pakistan will play at a neutral venue in any ICC tournament hosted by India until 2027.<\/p>\n

The decision was reached after Jay Shah \u2013 secretary of the powerful BCCI \u2013 took over as ICC chairman in December at the headquarters of the sport\u2019s governing body in Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very uncomfortable about the way that India is being treated at the moment,\u201d former England cricketer and popular broadcaster Jonathan Agnew told ABC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is wrong. If you\u2019re going to play an international tournament you can\u2019t pick and choose where you play and where you\u2019re not going to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how long this can carry on for. It makes a farce of these tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The playing and pitch conditions in Dubai and the venues in Pakistan \u2013 Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi \u2013 are drastically different.<\/p>\n

There has been no dew in Dubai in India\u2019s first two wins with the highest total being 244 when Rohit Sharma\u2019s team chased down 242 against Pakistan on a sluggish pitch.<\/p>\n

Totals in Pakistan have been much higher with dew also playing a part, notably when Australia\u2019s Josh Inglis hit an unbeaten 120 to chase down a tournament-record 352 against England at Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Huge\u2019 advantage<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat about the advantage India have in playing only in Dubai \u2013 which seems to me to be a hard-to-quantify advantage, but an undeniable advantage?\u201d former England captain Michael Atherton asked Nasser Hussain on the Sky Sports Podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing at just one venue. Therefore, the selection, you know, can focus on the conditions in Dubai.\u201d<\/p>\n

India and New Zealand have moved into the semi-finals from Group A and will play each other in Dubai in the last group match on Sunday.<\/p>\n

But irrespective of the placing, India will play their semi-final in Dubai on March 4.<\/p>\n

The final will be played in Lahore on March 9, unless India qualifies in which case it will be in Dubai.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s Pat Cummins missed out on leading his team in the eight-nation tournament \u2013 once called the mini World Cup \u2013 because of an ankle injury, but weighed in on the debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good in that the tournament can go on, but obviously, it does give them (India) a huge advantage playing on the same ground,\u201d Cummins told Yahoo Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey already look very strong, and they have got that obvious benefit of playing all their games there.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, England skipper Jos Buttler played down the controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really,\u201d Buttler said after being asked if the schedule gave India an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a unique tournament already, isn\u2019t it, with being hosted here with one team playing in a different place but that\u2019s not something I\u2019m sort of worried too much about at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former cricketers and pundits have slammed India\u2019s \u201cundeniable\u201d advantage of playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai, while the other seven teams have to shuttle between three venues in Pakistan and the UAE. India refused to travel to hosts Pakistan for the 50-over tournament, because of security concerns and political tensions, and are playing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":66579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13521,26796],"class_list":["post-66578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-champions-trophy","tag-india-cricket-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66580,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66578\/revisions\/66580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}