ICC Champions Trophy 2025: "Where's the crowd.." Michael Vaughan pokes fun at Pakistan crowd for tournament opener

Michael Vaughan expressed surprise at the lack of fans during PAK vs NZ match.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 got underway on Wednesday with defending champions Pakistan hosting New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi.

While on social media, Pakistani fans have been celebrating the return of an ICC tournament to Pakistan, it was less visible on the ground. The lack of the presence of fans in the stadium in the first half of the game was a talking point.

This is the first major ICC tournament that Pakistan are hosting since the 1996 World Cup. Surprisingly, there was lack of crowd at the National Stadium in Karachi even though the hosts were playing.

About half of the stadium looked empty during New Zealand’s innings with vast spaces of unacquired seats visible.

Michael Vaughan mocks Pakistani crowd for no-show in the Champions Trophy opener

Former England captain Michael Vaughan took to Twitter to express his surprise on this topic. He even sarcastically mocked the Pakistani fans in his tweet.

Vaughan tweeted, “Great to see the champions trophy being played in Pakistan .. First major event since 1996 .. Have they forgotten to tell the locals it’s on .. Where is the crowd ?? #ChampionsTrophy2025”

Great to see the champions trophy being played in Pakistan .. First major event since 1996 .. Have they forgotten to tell the locals it’s on .. Where is the crowd ?? #ChampionsTrophy2025

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 19, 2025

Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and elected to bowl first. Will Young and Tom Latham cracked solid centuries, while Glenn Phillips gave New Zealand a powerful finish to take the total to beyond 300 runs.

Teams:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Will Young, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, William O’Rourke

Pakistan (Playing XI): Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan(w/c), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed

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