Champions Trophy: For training time before semis, Oz, SA to reach Dubai early
Australia and South Africa arrive in Dubai for Champions Trophy semis, while one team will return to Pakistan for the second semi-final.
Dubai: Australia and South Africa are reaching Dubai early to train for the Champions Trophy semi-final, slated for Tuesday. One of the teams however will have to return to Pakistan for the second semi-final, to be played on Wednesday.
These travel arrangements have been made to ensure that the Group B teams making the knockout rounds have at least a day in hand to practice before playing their semi-final. Who will play against India in Dubai will be known after the India-New Zealand final Group A match on Sunday.
The toppers of each group will face the team that finishes second in the other group. The team facing India will play in Dubai as the Indian board did not secure permission from the government to travel to Pakistan for the tournament.
The Australian team will reach Dubai on Saturday and train here on Sunday. South Africa will leave for Dubai after Saturday Group B fixture against England in Karachi and train the next day at the ICC academy, minutes away from the Dubai International Stadium. It’s almost certain that Afghanistan are going home. Else, they too were scheduled to take an early trip to Dubai.
In what are far from ideal circumstances, without these travel arrangements, one of the Group B teams would have been constrained to get practice time at the venue of their semi-final.
It’s not clear why both the semis were not pushed back by a day as it would have allowed the teams an extra day to travel and train. One reason being cited by the organisers is that this arrangement was to keep a longer gap ahead of Sunday’s final. During last year’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies, there was only a day’s gap between the second semi-final in Trinidad and the final in Barbados.
With India not taking the trip to Pakistan, the venue for the final will only be clear after their semi-final. If India win on Tuesday, the Champions Trophy winners will be crowned in Dubai. Else, Pakistan will get an opportunity to host the final at the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore.