The Summer of Cricket has begun for India Beginning with the ICC Champions Trophy
06 March 2025
The Champions Trophy is underway in Pakistan! This competition, which seemed to have been written off in 2017, has been reinstated. And it plays an important role in the cricketing world – as this short cricket tournament raises funds for the development of the game in non-test playing countries.
Natalie Sawyer spoke with the newest member of the This Sporting Planet family, Suhail Chandhok, to get the low down on the event.
“I'm glad that the tournament's back,” said Suhail. “The fact that it's back in Pakistan is another huge story, of course, in itself. You know, Pakistan hosting an ICC tournament for the first time since 1996. If I'm not wrong. And that's huge for the nation itself. But I think just on the format coming back, look, I think you either have to kill ODI cricket altogether or you've got to help sustain it with an ICC Champions Trophy.”
The current state of ODI cricket is an issue. Suhail explained that the shorter formats have become more popular with broadcasters and supporters, while Test cricket retains its allure as the original: the epitome of the game. Even so, he told Natalie, one-day cricket has a seriousness about it that commands respect.
“I think teams are taking it seriously. Just given by given the squads that have been sent across to Dubai and Pakistan, there's a lot that's going on behind it. There's a lot of thought that's going on behind it as well. From an Indian standpoint, it is the best squad that you could possibly see.”
He says that despite Australia’s decision to send a weakened side. Even so, the Aussies defeated England. Suhail asked Shane Watson how they do it.
“He said, look, I think there's something that mentally just switches on within us as Aussies. And, you know, they have this sort of switch that goes off when an ICC big ticket event turns up, where they know how to sort of hit that next gear mentally, and it's almost as if they feed off that pressure as well.”
Australia are one of Suhail’s tips for the title, along with India, South Africa and the “dark horses” New Zealand. But, in this unforgiving format, a few bad results can end your hopes – hosts Pakistan already look down and out. Yet there is far more than cricketing glory riding on this tournament for Pakistan. It’s a key moment for the nation.
“Just the implication on tourism, just the implication on the outward look into Pakistan. I think the safety issues, commercials, all of this, the entire implication on Pakistan is so different from the outside world in and I think when you pull off a tournament like this where there's no issues on safety - and hopefully there won't be going forward – when the entire tournament is run in a smooth manner. Hopefully the takeaway from this is that, you know, Pakistan can host cricket again at the end of the day. People love watching cricket there. You get that flavor of love for sport and for cricket in Pakistan.”
Due to the political tensions between India and Pakistan, India are playing their matches at a neutral venue in Dubai. Jasprit Bumrah is not in the team, but they are faring well – and all Suhail’s concerns, which he expressed in an earlier podcast episode, about his nation’s cricketing fortunes seem to have melted away.
“Right now things are looking pretty rosy. Due to really good wins; Rohit Sharma back in amongst the runs. Virat Kohli with 100. And suddenly, you know, all the form of Virat and everything else is forgotten.”
