Legendary West Indies batter and two-time World Cup champion, Sir Viv Richards has blamed the ICC for the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 scheduling fiasco. Much has been raised regarding India's 'unfair' advantage of playing only in Dubai at the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Australia and South Africa traveled to the UAE not knowing whether their Champions Trophy semifinal would be in Dubai or Lahore, as their opponent would be determined by the outcome of the India-New Zealand match on Sunday.
While Australia traveled to the UAE on Saturday, South Africa was scheduled to fly out of Pakistan on Sunday. With India playing all of their competition matches in Dubai, the final will also be held at the Dubai International Stadium, assuming Rohit Sharma's squad makes the summit clash.
Former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton had also recently said India have the advantage of not having to travel to the other venues.
Sir Viv Richards, who is a governing council member for the International Masters League, stated that he won’t go into the political part of the issue, but instead would like answers from the ICC, as he felt they are responsible for this issue.
“People may have a point when they say that. I guess that’s due to politics — I don’t want to get into the political side of things. But I believe the people who are responsible, in terms of the governing and the ruling of the game in itself, which is the ICC, they’re the ones who I think got the problem.
I would like them to come up with an answer. Why? If they are the governing body of cricket, why is that happening at present? I honestly believe one of the things that can bring all of us together, fans and everyone, even enemies together, (is) sports," Richards was quoted by PTI.
The first semifinal will take place in Dubai on Tuesday, and the second semifinal will take place in Lahore the following day. To find out who they would play, Australia and South Africa would need to wait for the outcome of the India vs. New Zealand match.
Due to security concerns in Pakistan, all of India's games will be held in Dubai; therefore, they will have to wait until tomorrow to find out where they will play. In the event that India advances to the final, the championship match will also be moved to Dubai.
