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Mohammad Rizwan and co will made an early exit from the Champions Trophy but will still pocket a significant prize money.
Pakistan entered the Champions Trophy as the defending champions. (AFP Photo)
Pakistan had high hopes for their Champions Trophy campaign. Besides hosting the ICC tournament for the first time in their history, they were also its defending champions with the tournament returning after a gap of nearly eight years. However, inside five days of the tournament, their campaign came to a disappointing and early end with the Mohammad Rizwan-led side losing their opening two matches of Group A to crash out of the semifinals race.
And then rain ended their hopes of bowing out with a consolation victory as their final group match, against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on Thursday, was a complete washout. Pakistan thus became the first host in Champions Trophy history to not win a single match in an edition.
Heads will roll following a wretched campaign with calls to replace several players from the current ODI setup with younger generation capable of playing fearless cricket.
Pakistan is hosting an ICC event for the first time in 29 years. However, the home fans only managed to watch their team in action just once – against New Zealand in the tournament opener. Their second match against India was held in Dubai as per the Hybrid Model while the third match against Bangladesh was abandoned without toss due to bad weather.
There’s some consolation for the hosts though.
The ICC has bumped up the prize money for the competition by 53 per cent. The pool has been increased to USD 6.9 million, and the winner will pocket USD 2.24 million while the runners-up USD 1.12 million.
The teams that fail to progress beyond the group stage will each receive USD 1,40,000 in addition to a guaranteed base payment of USD 1,25,000.
Pakistan, England and Bangladesh are the three teams that are officially out of semifinals race and therefore each will receive USD 2,65,000 (INR 2,31,57,635.32).
For more in-depth coverage of the Champions Trophy, check out the latest Points Table to see where your favorite team stands. Stay updated on the tournament’s top performers with the Most Runs and Most Wickets leaderboards. Keep following for all the latest updates!
