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The head coach of England, Matthew Mott, stated that
he was not aware that his team’s spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy was in doubt
until halfway through the second innings of their 100-run loss to India in
Lucknow. This was after the ICC had earlier on Sunday verified the
qualification procedure.
At a board meeting in November 2021, the ICC approved
the qualification method, deciding that Pakistan would automatically qualify as
the host nation and be joined at the eight-team event by the seven other
highest-finishing teams from the 2023 World Cup in India. At the time, neither
the general public nor the media were informed of the news.
While some rival teams were aware of the
method—Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan stated an aim of a top-eight finish
following his side’s loss to the Netherlands on Saturday night—others, like
England, were not. The process was announced to the media on Sunday afternoon
in Lucknow.
England is now bottom of the group standings with five
losses from their six group games. They may need to win two of their final
three games to secure a spot in the Champions Trophy. On Saturday, they take on
Australia in Ahmedabad. After that, they go to Pune to play the Netherlands and
Kolkata to play Pakistan.
Immediately after England’s defeat, Mott confirmed at
a press conference that he had only found out about the top-eight cut-off
“about an hour and a half ago”. He said: “The ICC do change the
rules quite a bit with qualification and to be honest, I don’t think it would
affect, in any way, the way we’ve played in this tournament, so it’s not a big
deal.”
Jos Buttler, England’s captain, was asked at the
post-match presentation whether he was aware of the qualification process, and
whether it added any extra motivation to England’s final three games.
“Yeah, I’m aware of that,” Buttler said. “Absolutely, it just
proves we’ve got lots to play for.”
Mott added: “We’ve got a fair bit to play for
towards the back end of this tournament. [The qualification process] gives us a
lot of focus that we need to make sure we can’t, you know, just turn up. We’ve
got to turn up and play and win those games. And we’re obviously up against
some good teams in those last few games as well. That’s plenty of motivation
for us.”