Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has once again taken a strong stance against former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton for their claims that India had an unfair advantage during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The English duo, along with several cricketers like Jos Buttler, David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen, had raised concerns about India playing all their matches at one venue – Dubai, while other teams had to travel between multiple locations.
Sunil Gavaskar hits back at Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton over India’s Champions Trophy scheduling
The criticism stemmed from the hybrid model adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to send India to Pakistan due to security concerns. Under this arrangement, all of India’s matches, including the semifinals and final, were played in Dubai.
Hussain and Atherton suggested that avoiding travel and playing in familiar conditions gave India a major advantage over other teams. However, Gavaskar dismissed these accusations as baseless complaints, asserting that the ICC had announced this decision months before the tournament, and if anyone had a problem with it, they should have spoken up before the event began—not after India won the title.
“There will be the carpers who talked about the advantage India had playing only at one venue and not having to travel between matches. However, that was decided by the ICC much before the tournament started, and any negative comment about that should have happened before the tournament’s first ball was bowled,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
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Gavaskar challenges England’s history of failing despite home advantage
In a blunt response, Gavaskar questioned why England, which has hosted numerous ICC tournaments in the past, failed to capitalize on their own home advantage for decades. He further emphasized that home advantage alone does not win tournaments – it is the team’s performance, preparation, and execution under pressure that truly matter. Gavaskar pointed out that while England players were quick to complain, they had no problem playing multiple ICC events at home, yet failed to deliver until they finally won the ODI World Cup 2019.
“If ‘home advantage’ was the sole reason India won, then why did England – where most of the complaints are coming from—fail to win any ICC trophies before 2019 despite hosting the tournament several times?,” Gavaskar concluded.
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