"Had A Terror Incident": Pakistan Expert's Big Champions Trophy Revelation Ahead Of Final

Despite three Champions Trophy matches in the country getting abandoned due to rain, fans losing interest after the national team's premature exit, excessive spending on revamping stadiums, a hybrid model and suffocating security measures, experts in Pakistan still believe the marquee event was a success and could open the doors for more international events. Pakistan hosted the Champions Trophy on a hybrid model after India refused to send its team to the country due to security concerns, and instead played all its matches in Dubai.

While fans in Pakistan could not watch the arch-foes clash in one of the three refurbished venues in the country, they suffered a huge setback when Mohammad Rizwan's side was eliminated early after losing to New Zealand and India.

On the security front, though, Pakistan earned a lot of points with the event in the country not seeing a single untoward incident.

"It is what it is for Pakistan cricket. Given that we even had another terror incident in Bannu a day before the semifinal (between South Africa and New Zealand) in Lahore, we should be happy that we managed to host such a big event without any incident," said cricket analyst and writer, Omair Alavi.

Pakistan deployed around 16,000 police and paramilitary rangers for the safety of the visiting teams in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Though Australia skipper Steve Smith, South Africa's Temba Bavuma and New Zealand's Mitchell Santner spoke about how relaxed they felt moving around in Dubai compared to the stringent security protection they had in Pakistan, Dave Musker, ICC's safety and security manager, said the event was "successful".

"The coordination and professionalism of the security personnel was very good and I would say it was a