Michael Atherton sensationally accuses ICC of giving India unfair advantage in ICC Champions Trophy 2025

The ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025 has been hit by another controversy after former England captain Michael Atherton questioned India's “home-like” advantage of playing all their matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, UAE.

Michael Atherton has pointed out that other teams are traveling across multiple venues and adjusting to different conditions in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025; India has been granted the rare luxury of playing all their matches at a single venue in Dubai.

Michael Atherton questions India’s advantage in ICC Champions Trophy 2025

The Englishman believes this luxury gives the Men in Blue an undeniable edge, as they can focus entirely on mastering Dubai's conditions without any travel or the challenges of unfamiliar pitches in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy.

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Michael Atherton said on Sky Sports Podcast: “What about the advantage India has in playing in Dubai, only in Dubai? Which seems to me to be a hard-to-quantify advantage, but an undeniable advantage. They’re playing at just one venue. They don’t have to travel either between venues or, you know, between countries, as a lot of other teams have to do. Therefore, the selection, you know, can focus in on the conditions in Dubai.”

He also highlighted that India already knows their semifinal venue, which gives them an extra edge in many aspects, and that’s totally unfair to the other teams. The former England captain said that the Indian cricket team will prepare according to the conditions in Dubai while other teams won’t have that luxury.

It’s kind of hard to quantify how big an advantage: Michael Atherton

Atherton has indirectly slammed the ICC for giving ‘too big an advantage’ to the Men in Blue that he couldn’t even quantify. He feels that the ICC did injustice to the other teams only because Rohit Sharma and his team refused to play in Pakistan.

He signed off by saying, “And obviously, they’ll know where they’re playing their semi-final as and when they get through to that. That seems to me to be an undeniable advantage, but, you know, it’s kind of hard to quantify how big an advantage.”

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Notably, the Indian government didn’t give NOCs to the BCCI to send the Indian cricket team to Pakistan for the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 due to security reasons. This led to a lot of delay in confirming the status of the tournament, and eventually, ICC and PCB had to shift India’s matches to Dubai.

India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia set to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy semifinals

As India qualify for the semifinals, one knockout match will be held in Dubai, which will also host the Champions Trophy 2025 final if the Men in Blue make it to the summit clash under the hybrid model. Pakistan are already out of the semifinals race after losing the first two games.

Indian players are familiar with Dubai’s conditions, and they already have a strong team, they made the most of it by winning their first two games against Bangladesh and Pakistan in the tournament to secure a spot in the semifinals.

Notably, from Group A, India and New Zealand are certain, while Australia and South Africa from Group B are likely to make it to the Top-4 of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025.