Sri Lanka are not among the eight sides that will feature in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
The Champions Trophy is all set to return in 2025 after a seven-and-a-half-year hiatus. The tournament will be played between February 19 and March 9 across four venues in Pakistan and the UAE, and will feature eight teams. Sri Lanka are among the four Full Members that are missing out on this edition, along with the West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.
This will be the first time the Champions Trophy will be held without Sri Lanka, who had hosted and, after two days of rain, shared the trophy after a farcical final in 2002.
Sri Lanka, thus, are set to become the second former champions to not qualify for an edition of the Champions Trophy. The West Indies, who won in 2004, could not make it to 2017 or 2025. The other former hosts to miss out are Bangladesh (hosted in 1998, missed 2009 and 2013) and Kenya (hosted in 2000, missed all editions from 2006).
Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa are now the only teams to have appeared in all nine editions of the Champions Trophy.
Why are Sri Lanka not playing in the 2025 Champions Trophy?
While Pakistan qualified automatically as hosts, the other spots went to the top seven among the other teams at the 2023 World Cup – Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan, England, and Bangladesh.
Also read: Champions Trophy 2025: Predicted starting XIs for all eight teams
Bangladesh (net run rate -1.087), Sri Lanka (-1.419), and the Netherlands (-1.825) won two matches each, but Bangladesh finished eighth by virtue of superior net run rate.
Incidentally, Sri Lanka have had an excellent run in ODIs since the World Cup, having won 15 and lost five. Since Sanath Jayasuriya took over as head coach, their record reads 9-3 including series wins against India, the West Indies, New Zealand, and Australia – all of whom are former Champions Trophy winners. None of these wins, unfortunately, helped them earn a Champions Trophy berth.
