 "Hosts and defending champions Pakistan ended up playing just one match on home soil in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy before bowing out in the group stage. Reuters")
The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy is far from over, with the group-stage matches still underway and the knockouts set to take place next week. Hosts and defending champions Pakistan, however, will have no option but to watch the remainder of the tournament on television sets, or from the stands if they wish to attend matches as spectators.
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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had spent a fortune for the ninth edition of the Champions Trophy, the first global event taking place in their backyard since the Wills World Cup in 1996. One report claimed the Mohsin Naqvi-led board was forced to take an overdraft after their budget for renovating the three venues for the tournament touched PKR 8 billion (approximately INR 561 crore).
And for the tournament to be a success from the Pakistani perspective, the Mohammad Rizwan-led home team had to go the distance, or reach the semi-finals at the very least.
How Pakistan’s Champions Trophy project went down the drain in a week
The ‘Men in Green’ had entered the tournament as the defending champions, having defeated India in spectacular fashion in the final of the 2017 edition at The Oval in London.
And despite their inconsistency in recent assignments, especially in the preceding ODI triangular series featuring New Zealand and South Africa, Rizwan’s men were expected to make the most of home advantage and put up a strong performance in the ‘Mini World Cup’.
In the end, cricket fans in Pakistan got to watch their team in action just once, with Rizwan and Co’s campaign coming to a dismal end in a space of a week. They were on the back-foot after suffering a 60-run loss at the hands of New Zealand in the tournament opener in Karachi.
And they hardly put up a fight against arch-rivals India in Dubai on Sunday as Virat Kohli’s match-winning ton helped the Men in Blue chase down a target of 242 with plenty of wickets and overs to spare.
Impact Shorts
View AllPakistan’s exit from the Champions Trophy was confirmed a day after their defeat against India, with New Zealand sealing their place in the semi-finals with a five-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
The ‘Men in Green’ still had something to fight for – they could have signed off from their first ICC event on home soil with at least one win during their final Group A match against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Thursday.
The rain gods, however, had other plans as incessant rain resulted in the game being called off without a ball bowled . Pakistan and Bangladesh collected a point each as a result, with the former finishing at the bottom of Group A.
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Pakistani cricket has experienced plenty of turbulence in recent months, with the spotlight firmly fixed on the progress of construction work at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi’s National Stadium ahead of the Champions Trophy.
Security has always been a major concern for Pakistan, the nation that had become a no-go zone after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009. And incidents of pitch invasion in recent games as well as reports of terror groups targeting the event have only served to worsen the board’s headache.
In such circumstances, a strong performance from the home team would certainly have improved the mood for everyone in Pakistan. Instead, the board and the team management will be presented with the task of making some tough calls as they plan for the road ahead.