Champions Trophy: Empty seats in Karachi Stadium, PCB failure

Last updated:February 19, 2025, 15:55 IST

The Champions Trophy started at the National Stadium in Karachi, taking a match between Pakistan and New Zealand, the ICC was afraid of what was afraid. At the time of the toss, when the camera of the broadcaster rotated in the stadium, the entire stadium is not empty …Read more

Fans shocked Pakistan team in the first match, Karachi Stadium remained vacant

New Delhi. The Champions Trophy started in the midst of all maneuvers, tam-jham and debate. First the opening ceremony was postponed, after that the kind of picture of the stadium came to the face of this, one thing became clear why the ICC was shying away from the tournament in Pakistan and what was afraid was on the first day of the tournament.

Karachi, with a capacity of about 35 thousand spectators, reached the field with great enthusiasm at the National Stadium, but the silence on the field cooled their passion. When the captains of both teams Mitchell Santner and Mohammad Rizwan reached the pitch for the toss, the broadcaster’s camera accidentally turned towards the stand and after seeing the picture that was seen after that the ICC would also be current.

Who will clap the stadium empty?

To save the declining popularity of ODI cricket, the Champions Trophy was looking at the ICC Sanjeevani and hoping that the spectators of Pakistan would reach the stadium in large numbers, but what was seen in the first match was surprising. There were only 4-5 thousand spectators in the stadium and almost all the stands were seen empty. Usually, when the host team is playing, the fans come to see their team and the ground remains houseful but Pakistan was on the ground in Karachi but the audience kept his face from the team. Look at the interesting thing that a few days ago the final of the Tri -series was played between these two teams, the number of viewers who watched were more than this match.

Preparation incomplete, who will take responsibility

The lack of enthusiasm of empty stadium and fans shows that the Pakistan Board did not take any concrete steps to popularize the Champions Trophy. The entire focus of the Pakistan Board was how to withdraw money from ICC. The International Cricket Council gave Pakistan rupees to Pakistan, but no one knows where the board used it. Matching half the incomplete stadium and not providing basic facilities to the audience in the stadium was also a big reason, due to which the fans turned away from the stadium. The second big reason is to make their big players constantly performing poorly, due to which people are shying away in the name of going to the stadium. In the circumstances in which the Champions Trophy started and if this series continued like this, then it is not a big thing to think ten times before giving a big tournament to ICC Pakistan.