From Champions Trophy to IPL: The unseen strain of cricket’s travel grind | Cricket News

File photo of Delhi Capitals cricketers waiting to board their flight in IPL 2025. (Image: Delhi Capitals)

New Delhi: During the recently concluded Champions Trophy, current and former players were left miffed by the fact that India played all their matches in Dubai. The team were stationed at one hotel, practiced at single facility, played at one venue and eventually, went on to win the tournament.
The situation arose after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) didn’t get the permission to travel to designated hosts Pakistan due to safety reasons. After talks between BCCI, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and International Cricket Council (ICC), a hybrid model was agreed upon with India’s matches taking place in Dubai while rest played their fixtures in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi.
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As it panned out, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were all in Dubai ahead of the semi-final as Group A went down to the wire. With India beating New Zealand in the final group game, South Africa and New Zealand returned to Pakistan for the semi-final.
The scheduling and logistics meant South Africa flew to Dubai the morning after their last round robin fixture, reached the UAE in the afternoon and after ascertaining their fate, were preparing for flight back less than 12 hours after landing.

David Miller highlighted this travel nightmare after their exit. “It’s only an hour and 40 minute flight, but the fact that we had to do that was not ideal,” Miller said after South Africa’s 50-run defeat to New Zealand.
“It’s early morning, it’s after a game and we had to fly. Then we got to Dubai at 4:00 pm. And at 7.30 am we had to come back. It doesn’t make it nice. It’s not like we flew five hours, and we had enough time to recover and recuperate, but it was not an ideal situation still.”
Over the course of next eight weeks, cricketers will do much of that during the Indian Premier League (IPL). All 10 IPL teams will play 14 games – seven at home and seven away. In effect they will play at eight different venues. The exceptions to this are Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings, who will play at nine venues. DC, RR and PBKS have second homes venues in Visakhapatnam, Guwahati and Dharamsala.

DC, who will be chasing their first IPL title, now led by Axar Patel, will travel the second-shortest distance of the 10 teams. Where Royal Challengers Bengaluru, another maiden title chasers, will travel over 17,000 kms in the league stage alone, DC will fly 9,270kms around the country – second only to Sunrisers Hyderabad (8500-plus kms.)
As Miller’s recounting of the events can suggest, life of an IPL cricketer is taxing beyond the regular challenges of the cricket field. It involves playing a match, packing, flying the next day, practice and then getting ready for the next fixture with very little turnaround time.
“This is all mental. If you look at it in a toxic way, it will look toxic. If you enjoy it, you’d consider it a daily routine,” said DC’s Abhishek Porel to a query by TimesofIndia.com. “You need to know when to enter game mode, to switch on and when to enter chill mode.”
“For us, it is a practice that we undertake throughout the year. It is normal. There’s a match, then travel and then match again. It happens all the time.”

His teammate Karun Nair, who played a starring role in Vidarbha’s Ranji Trophy title success, concurred with Porel.
“I think all of us are playing the game that we love. I don’t think we should have any complaints about travel. All of us have played enough to understand these things come with playing cricket at this level. I am sure that everyone is prepared to do whatever it takes and be ready for the games that are the most important things,” said Nair.
How much distance will teams travel in IPL 2025