India thumped New Zealand by 44 runs in Dubai, which meant they finished top of their group.

It means India will now play Australia on Tuesday in Dubai, while the Proteas would take a plane back to Pakistan to play New Zealand on Wednesday in Lahore.

It’s a quite farcical cricket scenario that all India games are played at one venue, which gives them a substantial advantage before they even take the field.

Earlier in the tournament, Proteas batsman Rassie van der Dussen spoke about their obvious advantage as they play at a single venue while the other seven teams had to travel for the duration of the tournament.

India have not played in Pakistan since 2008, and that’s probably not going to change soon. The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) also receives almost 40% of the ICC cricket funding on an annual basis.

It’s for that reason that the BCCI is able to dictate matters like this to the ICC, and though the solution would be to ban India from a tournament which takes place in Pakistan, that would never actually happen as it would be a financial disaster for the event.

With the tournament co-hosted in Pakistan and UAE, it was always to accommodate India. In fact, it will be difficult to see any team other than India going on to win the tournament, but there will always be an asterisk behind their name if they take the title.

@Michael_Sherman

IOL Sport

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