Worst ICC tournament ever?

[vvvslaxman]

I thought some tournaments that hapened in Windies were terrible. This current CT is next level. First hybrid model.  Then these average teams in a knock out tournament. 3 wash outs. Most of the matches were utterly one-sided. Afghanistan vs England, Australia vs England tolerable. Rest were hopeless one-sided. Now 2 dead rubber match between 2 top teams.  Poor crowd. This is handsdown the worst ICC tournament ever. BCCI should have asked permission to include India A team instead of Bangladesh. Would have been way more competitive

[vvvslaxman]

To add to that major players bailed out from the tournament.. 

[Ultimate_Game]

What are you on about? This has been an amazing tournament and went beyond my wildest expectations...

 

1. Pak waited for 30 years to host an ICC tourney.

2. Spent months trying to to force India to visit Pak, with lots of brouhaha over India jersey without Pak's name on it.

3. Lots of big talk from Pak fans about "showing India its place" and how "Pak and NZ will kick out India from the tournament"

5. Talk of Pak being "number 2 or 3 ranked ODI team in the world" with the best pace attack. Sounded exactly like what we heard before 2023 ODI WC.

6. Lo and behold, the tourney was a repeat of 2023 Asia Cup and 2023 ODI WC with them losing their opening match at home to a NZ team missing Rachin.

7. Then they got knocked out by India as usual in the very next game while playing their "home" tourney in Dubai 

8. Ended up topping the group from the bottom and ending up below B'desh which is no mean feat 

 

The only way this tournament gets better is if India wins it. But so far I'm loving it!

[straighttalk]

What is pathetic is to support our prima Donna team..aus and South Africa both will travel to Dubai and then one team will fly back to Pakistan..it is a farce and disgrace...intnl cricket will die if it is all about India..pathetic to say the least..

[Lord]

57 minutes ago, straighttalk said:

What is pathetic is to support our prima Donna team..aus and South Africa both will travel to Dubai and then one team will fly back to Pakistan..it is a farce and disgrace...intnl cricket will die if it is all about India..pathetic to say the least..

 

it is all about money

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, straighttalk said:

What is pathetic is to support our prima Donna team..aus and South Africa both will travel to Dubai and then one team will fly back to Pakistan..it is a farce and disgrace...intnl cricket will die if it is all about India..pathetic to say the least..

 

In defense of India, this was decided by PCB. Can't blame the team. Because they already used the allocated budget and asked for more.  So if you ask them to host in 3 different cities it will a lot more overhead.  PCB corrupt officials have not used the money they were given properly. Something is not right. They were given  75 million dollar for stadium upgrade and other arrangements. It is one of the major venue. But it doesn't have supersopper. No roof. Nothing. They were given hosting rights like 2 or 3 years back. They were upgrading stadium right till the end. It is still not complete. One guy casually walked into ground to congradulate Rachin ravindra. Imagine something happened there. That was a security lapse. Next time when we have ICC tournaments Pakistan will play in neutral venue. Most likely in same venue without travel. I am okay with that. 

[Ultimate_Game]

2 hours ago, straighttalk said:

What is pathetic is to support our prima Donna team..aus and South Africa both will travel to Dubai and then one team will fly back to Pakistan..it is a farce and disgrace...intnl cricket will die if it is all about India..pathetic to say the least..

1 hour ago, Lord said:

 

it is all about money

 

TBH this is on ICC. Who in their right mind assumes that Indian team will travel to Pakistan? Have they not been following intl cricket for the last 2 decades? What did they expect when they decided to host the trophy in Pak?

 

All they had to do was make it an event hosted by 2 nations - say Pak and B'desh or Pak and SL. That would sort out all the issues where one group plays in say SL/B'desh while the other group plays in Pak. But ICC made the idiotic decision and kicked the can down the road thinking they'll sort out things when the even date comes close. That shows how inept ICC really is.

 

India haven't changed their stance in nearly 2 decades now so how did ICC not factor that in? How can they be surprised India won't travel to Pak? ICC need to take a hard look at themselves and decide who made the call to host the tourney solely in Pak. If they can't even take into account India's matches in Pak, I shudder to think about their decision making process and administration capabilities.

[Zero_Unit]

It is infact one of the worst and borefest that I have witnessed.

- Ground is not upto ICC event standard - should not be drying the field with sponge 
- Weather has also played a role - can't control the weather but rain ruined alot of group stage matches.
- This is Champions Trophy - meaning only the elites plays it. Thus make everyone play with each other - televise 2 matches a day. I can bet you 100$, AFG would have given some of the top team a run for their money for that semi spot. But obviously profit over anything else. 

- Pakistan's match schedule was done in a stupid way - first match should have been VS Bangladesh, not New Zealand. Would have most likely won that match and kept the local crowd's interest.

- India playing in a completey different country also make a difference in a ICC event. ICC knew that there would be issues with IND visiting PAK. Should not have let PAK host it. If they really wanted to make it fair for all, either force India to travel to Pak or give up their place and bring in Sri Lanka or West Indies - ICC just showed everyone that they care more about money than ethics!
- Many TOP tier players have either not been selected or have retired right before CT - leaving most teams with new faces which also does not bring in excitement.
- Many last couple of ICC tournaments, even the last couple of matches mattered - just take an example of the last T20 WC where one of the last match between AFG V BD mattered. A win by X amount of over would have meant BD goes through, a win for AFG would mean Afg goes through or if Afg looses after X overs meant Aus goes through. None of those happened in this tournament, infact the host themselves got knocked out in 4 F'ing days ... 

Edited March 2, 2025 by Zero_Unit

[singhvivek141]

It's right on par with 2007 ODI WC.

 

PCB is a mediocre, incompetent, corrupt board who despite being the 4th richest board can't even maintain 3-4 stadiums properly and manage the security.

 

Incident where the ground was invaded during Rachin Ravindra' batting was a sham for any cricketing board. Imagine if he had stabbed Rachin or something similar. 

 

ICC should dissolve PCB and give the control & Security of stadiums to ACB/Taliban. They will do a better job.

[jf1gp_1]

8 hours ago, straighttalk said:

What is pathetic is to support our prima Donna team..aus and South Africa both will travel to Dubai and then one team will fly back to Pakistan..it is a farce and disgrace...intnl cricket will die if it is all about India..pathetic to say the least..

India had a poor itenerary during T20 WC. Cant remember where i saw it but they were showing airport which was just a set of room plus a lot of island hooping due to absence of direct flights.  

[New guy]

10 hours ago, Ultimate_Game said:

What are you on about? This has been an amazing tournament and went beyond my wildest expectations...

 

1. Pak waited for 30 years to host an ICC tourney.

2. Spent months trying to to force India to visit Pak, with lots of brouhaha over India jersey without Pak's name on it.

3. Lots of big talk from Pak fans about "showing India its place" and how "Pak and NZ will kick out India from the tournament"

5. Talk of Pak being "number 2 or 3 ranked ODI team in the world" with the best pace attack. Sounded exactly like what we heard before 2023 ODI WC.

6. Lo and behold, the tourney was a repeat of 2023 Asia Cup and 2023 ODI WC with them losing their opening match at home to a NZ team missing Rachin.

7. Then they got knocked out by India as usual in the very next game while playing their "home" tourney in Dubai 

8. Ended up topping the group from the bottom and ending up below B'desh which is no mean feat 

 

The only way this tournament gets better is if India wins it. But so far I'm loving it!

Even if india doesn't win, getting final hosted in Dubai instead of pakistan will be the punchline of this funny joke. 

[Bigg Brother]

2013 CT wasn't better either. It's just memorable as we won that one. Even 2009 one was boring where we were knocked out after match against Aussies was washed out and WI had sent their B squad. CT has always been pathetic tournament.

[Lone Wolf]

CT has always been boring until the KO's... The format lacks flavour.

 

Should be a round Robin contest tbh.  Each team plays everyone.  The Top 8 clash.

 

The top 2 play in one off finale.

[coffee_rules]

Best ever, I say!!

[Suhaan]

2002 was the last time when it looked exciting

[straighttalk]

8 hours ago, Ultimate_Game said:

 

TBH this is on ICC. Who in their right mind assumes that Indian team will travel to Pakistan? Have they not been following intl cricket for the last 2 decades? What did they expect when they decided to host the trophy in Pak?

 

All they had to do was make it an event hosted by 2 nations - say Pak and B'desh or Pak and SL. That would sort out all the issues where one group plays in say SL/B'desh while the other group plays in Pak. But ICC made the idiotic decision and kicked the can down the road thinking they'll sort out things when the even date comes close. That shows how inept ICC really is.

 

India haven't changed their stance in nearly 2 decades now so how did ICC not factor that in? How can they be surprised India won't travel to Pak? ICC need to take a hard look at themselves and decide who made the call to host the tourney solely in Pak. If they can't even take into account India's matches in Pak, I shudder to think about their decision making process and administration capabilities.

I agree..I think I worded my comment wrongly..I wasnt blaming Indian team but Icc and the and scheduling which would inconvenience other teams. ..get some gap between the two matches...to enable equal opportunities 

[Chalks]

Maybe it should have just remained a straight knockout tournament like the first two editions (1998 and 2000)?

 

 

 

[Lone Wolf]

2 hours ago, jf1gp_1 said:

India had a poor itenerary during T20 WC. Cant remember where i saw it but they were showing airport which was just a set of room plus a lot of island hooping due to absence of direct flights.  

India played in NY and Florida.  Other sides played in Dallas as well.  

All games were morning games & as is the case local crowd couldn't turn up.  This part really bugs me off.  Same thing happens when we tour Eng.  No D/N games (f*k this sh*t)

 

Australia literally had worst possible schedule... After loss to Afg (St Vincent )they had to turn up under 24 hrs to face India on another island (st. Lucia).

 

I think they should at least make things even for other sides while hosting ICC tournaments.  

 

2023 WC was so Goated that we had to travel all 9 cities & beat sides there. It was satisfying af.

2015 WC we played in both NZ and Australia. 

[Tillu]

ICC gave 70 million dollars to the PCB to renovate the stadiums of which even 30 million dollars wouldn't have been spent. This is ICCs way of rewarding the PCB for being a faithful servant all these years.

[Ultimate_Game]

7 hours ago, straighttalk said:

I agree..I think I worded my comment wrongly..I wasnt blaming Indian team but Icc and the and scheduling which would inconvenience other teams. ..get some gap between the two matches...to enable equal opportunities 

 

Again up to ICC and the host (Pak) to come up with the schedule. Not everything is on BCCI.