Posted by We’ve got to be honest with you. We don’t believe that India has maintained a hostile relationship with Pakistan all these years so that its men’s cricket team could gain an edge in the 2025 Champions Trophy. That doesn’t mean that playing all your games at the same ground when everyone else has to travel isn’t an advantage though.
There are certainly times in international cricket when India throws its weight around and there are certainly times when the team has it easier than others. These two things aren’t always conjoined.
If, say, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain suggest that India has some advantage in a particular competition, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re accusing the sport’s most influential nation of abusing its clout.
It will, however, be quite easy to find an Indian pundit who’ll be willing to take it that way.
“What about the advantage India have in playing in Dubai – only in Dubai – which seems to me to be a hard-to-quantify advantage, but an undeniable advantage,” Atherton asked Hussain before the Pakistan match.
“It is an advantage,” agreed Hussain. “So, the best team in the tournament have that advantage. And I saw a tweet the other day saying, ‘Pakistan host nation, India home advantage.’ It sums it up really.”
That was the misstep perhaps, framing it as ‘home advantage’. It’s not that, exactly. It’s more of a home-from-home advantage; a second home advantage; a not-quite-so-away advantage.
Laying it out a little more clearly, Hussain continued: “They are at one place, one hotel; they don’t have to travel. They have one dressing room. They know the pitch; they have picked for that pitch.
“They were very smart in their selection. They probably knew what Dubai is going to be like. They picked all their spinners, there was a bit of debate with Indian media saying why haven’t you gone for an extra seamer? Why all these spinners? Now we can seen why.”
All of this is true.
India have still had to play well to win their games, but there’s been slightly less to think about; a lightening of the mental load; a narrower and therefore sharper focus.
Rohit Sharma says the pitches they’ve played on have differed – but only to the extent that immediately adjacent strips in the same stadium in Dubai can differ. He also points out that Dubai isn’t in India and that it is “new for us too” – but it is a lot less new when you are basically living there and everyone else is flying in from Pakistan.
None of this guarantees anything – but it helps. If everyone else is traipsing about, playing at different grounds, not even knowing where the final will be should they qualify for it, then they simply have more on their plate.
India ending up with a home-from-home doesn’t have to be some grand conspiracy to still amount to an advantage.
“Why don’t you actually look at why your team has not qualified?” whatabouted Sunil Gavaskar when he heard about Hussain’s comments. “That’s what I was going to ask you, sir. Rather than constantly focusing on India, are you even looking at your own backyard?”
The answer, in this instance, was that England’s backyard wasn’t all that relevant when previewing a match between India and Pakistan.
Displaying skin so thin as to be almost translucent, Gavaskar irrelevantly continued: “They are always moaning. They just cannot seem to understand where India stands in international cricket; in terms of quality, income, talent, and, more importantly, in terms of generating revenue.
“India’s contribution to global cricket, through television rights and media revenue, plays a massive role. They need to understand that their salaries also come from what India brings to the world of cricket.”
We’re pretty sure Athers and Hussain understand this. In fact it’s possibly why they were devoting time to discussing India and the advantages the team has had in this tournament.
The fallacy of fairness
India didn’t demand to play all their matches in one place. It’s just that their government didn’t allow them to travel to Pakistan – the same position they’ve maintained for the last 16 years. Positioning them in the UAE was therefore considered the least ludicrous workaround. This is just the way it has gone – but that still results in an advantage.
Highlighting an advantage does not amount to complaining about it. Similarly, failing to acknowledge one doesn’t negate its existence.
Advantages and disadvantages are everywhere in cricket. Every match starts with a coin toss and one team or the other gaining an advantage. Rohit’s been losing all of these – that’s been a disadvantage. India are the only team playing the whole tournament solely at one ground – that’s an advantage.
Cricket is an imperfect sport in an imperfect world and its trophies are not lab experiments.
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