South Africa batter David Miller has said that it was not nice to shuttle between Pakistan and Dubai in the Champions Trophy 2025. Speaking candidly after getting knocked out of the tournament, Miller became the first cricketer to openly criticise the scheduling of the tournament.
With India refusing to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, the rest of the teams who were playing India had to travel between the cities in Pakistan and Dubai to play the opposition. Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Australia travelled to play India in the tournament.
South Africa was the only team to travel to Dubai and not play India. They had to take a flight out from Pakistan because they did not know what the line-up for the semi-final would be until India played New Zealand in the final group-stage match of the tournament.
It was a big hassle for South Africa, as they had to travel to Dubai right after playing England in the final group-stage match in Karachi. But, given they were not drawn against India in Dubai, they once again flew back to Pakistan, this time to Lahore to prepare for their semi-final against New Zealand.
“It’s only an hour and 40-minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal,” David Miller was quoted by ESPNcricinfo after their semi-final against New Zealand.
“It’s early morning, it’s after a game, and we had to fly. Then we got to Dubai at 4:00 pm. And at 7:30 am, we had to come back. It doesn’t make it nice. It’s not like we flew five hours, and we had enough time to recover and recuperate, but it was not an ideal situation still,” he added.
Miller became the first cricketer or coach in this tournament to openly let his displeasure be known about the scheduling. Most of the cricketers and coaches had earlier brushed aside the question, stating that they did not mind the one-and-a-half-hour extra travel.
