{"id":442470,"date":"2025-03-04T22:56:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T23:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=442470"},"modified":"2025-03-05T03:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T03:13:03","slug":"what-advantage-prickly-coach-blasts-favouritism-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=442470","title":{"rendered":"'What advantage?': Prickly coach blasts favouritism claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indian<\/a> coach Gautam Gambhir hit back at allegations of favouritism after his side knocked Australia out of the Champions Trophy on Wednesday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

India will take on either New Zealand or South Africa in the final and Gambhir's team has the added benefit of an extra day's rest before the trophy decider.<\/p>\n

It only adds to the advantage India has enjoyed throughout the tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The powerful BCCI refused to travel into Pakistan despite the reigning champions earning the right to host the Champions Trophy.<\/p>\n

Political tensions and safety concerns were behind the decision, although every other team has been based in Pakistan under tight security measures.<\/p>\n

\"Indian<\/p>\n

India has remained in one location in Dubai and played all matches \ufeffon the same wicket at the same venue, while opponents have flown around and played on varying wickets.<\/p>\n

A number of high-profile former players and commentators have pointed out the obvious advantage India has in the tournament, but Gambhir denies it exists at all.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"First of all, this is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team," Gambhir retorted in his press conference following Wednesday's win.<\/p>\n

"We have not played here. I don't remember which tournament we played in this stadium last. And in fact, we didn't plan anything like that.<\/p>\n

"There's a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage?<\/p>\n

"We haven't practised here even for a day. We're practising at the ICC Academy.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"If you look at the wickets there and here, the difference is between the ground and the sky. Some people are just perpetual cribbers, man.<\/p>\n

"They've got to grow up. So, I feel that there was nothing like we had any undue advantage or we had planned something like that."<\/p>\n

\"India's<\/p>\n

The farce was highlighted on Sunday when both Australia and South Africa flew from Lahore to Dubai.<\/p>\n

It was a gamble given the result of India's game against New Zealand determined where each semi-final would be played, but not when – the BCCI had already ensured India would play the first semi.<\/p>\n

Australia won the gamble, staying in Dubai, while South Africa \ufeffhad to turn around and fly back to Lahore to face the Kiwis on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Australian captain Steve Smith confirmed the wicket in Lahore and the wicket in Dubai were chalk and cheese – a fact India wouldn't know or have to worry about.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"The wickets we played on, yeah, they're completely different tracks," Smith said.<\/p>\n

"This one's quite slow, two-paced, took some spin. I think the Gaddafi track [in Lahore] is arguably one of the best one-day wickets in the world for batting. The ball skids on nicely, the outfield's lightning and yeah, there's definite differences there."<\/p>\n

Gambhir also denied India was able to pick its line-up knowing exactly how the wicket would play in Dubai.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"The plan was that if you pick two front-line spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two front-line spinners because it was a competition on the subcontinent," he said.<\/p>\n

"It was nothing like we wanted to set up a spinners' trap.<\/p>\n

"If you look at it, we only played one front-line spinner in the first three matches. We only played two front-line spinners in this match or the previous match. So, it was nothing like that."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian coach Gautam Gambhir hit back at allegations of favouritism after his side knocked Australia out of the Champions Trophy on Wednesday morning. India will […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":442472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=442470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442475,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442470\/revisions\/442475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/442472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=442470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=442470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=442470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}