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Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt is confident that the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be a huge success as it will be hosted in Pakistan.
Former Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt is confident that the upcoming 2025 ICC Champions Trophy will be a huge success as it will be hosted in Pakistan. This is because cricket enjoys immense popularity in Pakistan. He further said that the tournament will be even bigger than the recently concluded 2024 T20 World Cup, which was hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
The former Pakistan captain says that the US was chosen as the host for the 2024 T20 World Cup, but cricket was not popular there. Due to which the tournament could not be organized with much fanfare and was not much discussed. Butt explained in his YouTube video how things will be very different if the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is held on Pakistani soil-
Salman Butt gave this statement on hosting the ICC Champions Trophy 2025
“This event (ICC Champions Trophy 2025e) by Pakistan cannot be compared to the USA or any other country. It will definitely be a more successful event than the T20 World Cup. The pitches were not that good there, the stadiums were far away and the hotels were elsewhere. The locals did not know what was happening in their cities, only the foreigners living there knew about cricket.”
It is worth noting that the ICC reportedly suffered huge financial losses by organizing the 2024 T20 World Cup in the US. New news agency PTI
According to (via NDTV), the ICC had suffered a loss of around $20 million (approximately ₹167 crores).
Salman Butt on the craze for cricket in Asia
Explaining his point, Salman Butt highlighted that ICC events in Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are guaranteed to be a success due to the craze among fans. Butt said that although the teams had to travel a lot during the 2024 T20 World Cup, they will get presidential security in Pakistan, which will reduce their travel time considerably.
“The love and respect that the players will get will be completely different when the tournament is played in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. Also, the teams will not have to travel for hours. Everything will be sealed and it will take just six minutes for the team to reach the stadium. This is presidential security, a feeling that can never be had in America.”
