"Hoping West Indies Can Take Leaf Out Of Afghanistan": Vivian Richards

Champions Trophy 2025 will be remembered for the ages to come. The 50-over format tournament returned after a hiatus of eight years and saw numerous controversies even before the beginning. Defending champions Pakistan, who clinched the title in the 2017-edition, were the only hosts but India's games were played in Dubai due to the political tension between the two nations. As per the expectations, Rohit Sharma and co gave an exemplary performance and entered the semi-finals after remaining unbeatable in the league stage.

The semi-finals of Champions Trophy 2025 will begin from Tuesday and the top four teams are India, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Apart from them, one team which left everyone impressed was Afghanistan.

Those days are now gone when Afghanistan were considered as the underdogs in white-ball cricket. The nation marred by war and political tensions, the Afghans have time and again proved their worth in the field of cricket.

The story actually began with the 2023 ODI World Cup in India where Afghanistan defeated England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. They went on to create history by reaching the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024, where they lost to South Africa. In the same tournament, the Afghans also defeated the mighty Australia.

Talking about the Champions Trophy 2025, Afghanistan once again registered the biggest upset of the tournament by knocking out England from the semi-finals race. This Champions Trophy did not feature West Indies as the two-time world champions failed to reach the ODI World Cup in 2023.

West Indies legend Vivian Richard, who is also the International Masters League (IML) Governing Council member, recently spoke about Afghanistan's growth in white-ball cricket and urged