Cricket was initially popular only among the commonwealth nations. But as the sport’s popularity grew, its global acclaim led it to be the second most popular sport on the planet. The International Cricket Council is the governing body of the sport. It is responsible for determining which team plays the other depending on their member status with the International Cricket Council.
The top teams of the world play against each other in a home and away format alternatively. Usually, a bilateral series would feature a test series, a One Day International series, and a T20 series. While one nation is the host, the other is a guest, for whom these away conditions are a challenge. The host country is more aware of the conditions and have the crowd support.
In some special cases, the diplomatic relations between two countries can create an environment of hostility. To avoid any negative repercussions, a neutral venue is decided for the matches. These neutral venues are the ones wherein there are no home advantages for either side.The pitches curated at a neutral venue offers no advantage to either side. Most often, the fixtures at the neutral venues are matches that are played in the limited overs fixture, i.e., a One Day International or a T20 match. Test cricket is rarely played at a neutral venue unless the fixture is pre-decided as a part of a multination tournament. For example, the first three editions of the World Test Championships had pre-decided that the venue for the final will be Lord’s. In each edition, England never reached the final. Thus, for all the finalists, Lord’s became a neutral venue.
Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi are some of the most popular neutral venues. Each of these venues have dubbed Pakistan as the home side. This is largely owing to security concerns in Pakistan wherein the matches have been contested at a much lesser frequency.
