Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the venues for the 2025 Champions Trophy are seemingly far from ready as well. He added that the ICC could move the entire tournament outside Pakistan if they are convinced that the preparations won’t be completed in time as well. However, the 2025 Champions Trophy is slated to start on February 19 with a match between Pakistan and New Zealand in Karachi. While all India games will take place in Dubai, the rest of the matches are supposed to be played in Rawalpindi and Lahore apart from Karachi as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “The Champions Trophy is supposed to happen and you were given ₹600 crore to upgrade your venues and invest in infrastructure development. So you start working and Pakistan did that as well. Then a video came out. It showed that it’s not even ‘R’ of ready. The dressing room, the press box and the corporate box are not ready, and the floodlight job is not completed in some places.”
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“As neither PCB nor any Pakistani outlet has refuted it and the ICC hasn’t commented on it, we will assume it’s true, and the truth is that one of the ICC deadlines to hand over the grounds has already crossed. If the ICC realistically feels you won’t be able to get them ready, they have the right to take away the tournament from you completely,” he added.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra shared that Pakistan would somehow make the Champions Trophy venues match-ready as well.
“Since we are subcontinent residents, we know that we find a way out at the last minute, and I feel Pakistan will also do that. They will somehow prepare the grounds but when the teams reach there, you might have a leaking tap somewhere, a fan might not be working, or painting might not have been done properly somewhere. Even if the player enclosures and the press box are made right, you can take it in writing that the spectators will have a hard time because the facilities for them won’t be ready properly as they are prepared at the last and you are already behind time and the weather is not helping,” Chopra observed.
