Top seven teams of World Cup to play in Champions Trophy 2025 with hosts Pakistan
New Delhi (PTI): Finishing inside top seven on the ongoing World Cup table will have an added incentive to the teams as they will receive qualification for the eight-team ICC Champions Trophy 2025 alongside designated hosts Pakistan.
The ICC had revived the Champions Trophy in 2021 for the international calendar of 2024-2031 and the two editions of the tournament will be staged in 2025 and 2029.
The Champions Trophy is also set to follow the traditional format four teams divided into two groups with top two sides from each group entering the semifinals which is followed by the final.
But this qualification system, which was approved in 2021 during an ICC board meeting, might hamper the prospects of teams like England and Bangladesh in getting a Champions Trophy slot.
Looking at the scenario, England are currently placed 10th on the World Cup chart with just two points, and Bangladesh are on ninth with two points.
Both the teams have three more matches left in the tournament and need some massive turnaround to lift themselves among the top seven.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan had asserted the importance of finishing inside the top seven in the World Cup.
"I mean, not the semifinal hope. It is not a semifinal possibility. At least, we need to do a little better. Suppose, you have to be in the (top) ranking 8 if you want to play in the Champions Trophy (2025).
"So, there are still three matches left considering that in mind," Shakib said on Saturday after Bangladesh's defeat against the Netherlands.
The Dutch outfit and Afghanistan are currently eighth and seventh respectively in the table and can realistically dream of getting a berth in the Champions Trophy.
Another drawback of this system is that teams like West Indies, Ireland and Zimbabwe stand no chance to qualify for the Champions Trophy because they are not playing in this World Cup.
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Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
