“Host nation, Pakistan. Home advantage, India.” That was the post on social media and it created a debate. Readily, two former England captains, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, pointed out how India have had a significant advantage by playing all their matches in the ongoing Champions Trophy at a single venue.
The Champions Trophy is being played in a hybrid model, with Pakistan as the tournament host but India playing their matches in Dubai. And according to Atherton and Hussain, this has eliminated the fatigue and logistical challenges for Rohit Sharma & Co.
Former India opener Robin Uthappa, however, chose to look at it in a different way, as he, along with India’s T20 World Cup-winning coach Lalchand Rajput, who is now in charge of the UAE national team, attended a book launch event here in Dubai on Friday.
The book – Life Lessons from Cricket – is written by senior journalist Vimal Kumar, along with Ashish Ambasta. The foreword of the book has been written by former India coach Greg Chappell and the preface by the 2011 World Cup-winning support staff Paddy Upton.
At the event, Uthappa said: “I will not say it’s a home advantage but there is definitely an advantage of familiarity. I heard an interview where former India opener Wasim Jaffer said that there could have been one match in Abu Dhabi, one in Dubai, and one in Sharjah, and definitely that could have been done so that other teams couldn’t find a reason to complain.
“However, we must ask why didn’t we go to Pakistan? Because of the geo-political situation. And each country has their right to decide if they don’t want to travel to a particular nation. And for that, if one country ends up playing in one venue then so be it.”
Rajput commented: “See, there is definitely an advantage as one team is playing all (their) matches at one venue. But if you look closely, Pakistani pitches are flat while Dubai is on the slower side, and it will take some effort to get used to these conditions quickly.”
Former India stalwart VVS Laxman and IPL chairman Arun Dhumal have spoken glowingly about the book.