Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar minced no words to the past and present players who have pointed fingers at India’s Champions Trophy 2025 one-venue advantage, stating “either play or otherwise go out”. Ever since Pakistan was announced as the hosts of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, the BCCI were firm in its decision that it wouldn’t send the Indian team across borders to compete in the mega tournament due to security reasons.
As a result, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) were forced to accept the hybrid model where the Men in Blue are playing all their games in Dubai including the knockouts. Rohit Sharma’s men have already qualified for the semifinals with wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan.
While no one spoke about India’s undue advantage of playing in a single venue as compared to other teams who had to travel across venues and countries, the calls got louder after the 2013 champions made it to the last four with former England cricketers Michael Atherton and Naseer Hussain leading the charge.
Legendary Sunil Gavaskar, who is currently a part of the commentary team in Dubai, came up with a blunt answer when asked asked about the same and asked the concerned (Michael Atherton and Naseer Hussain) to look into their own team’s debacle, rather pointing fingers on others.
“Khelna hae to khelo, nehito bahar jao (If you want to play then play, otherwise go out),” Sunil Gavaskar told India Today. Incidentally, England were knocked out of the tournament after two losses in Group B, including an embarrassing defeat to Afghanistan.
