The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Sunday that India has notified the International Cricket Council (ICC) regarding its reluctance to visit Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy that is to be held next year between February and March. “The PCB has received an e-mail from the ICC, stating that the BCCI has informed them that their team will not travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025,” Read the statement from PCB. “The PCB has forwarded that e-mail to the Government of Pakistan for their advice and guidance,” stated a spokesperson for the PCB.
PCB refrained from discussing the contents of the ICC email but its ch in the military remained firm that they will reveal their position once they had received something definitive from the ICC.
Earlier, the BCCI had communicated to the ICC about its team not traveling to the country, which did not leave any choice with the PCB but to conduct the Champions Trophy in the ‘Hybrid Model’.
It was further mentioned by Naqvi that Pakistan was not on board with the ‘Hybrid Model’.
Since 2008, when they came for the Asia Cup under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India has not sent its cricket team to Pakistan. However, Pakistan has visited India for a two-way ODI series in 2012-13, the T20 World Cup in 2016 and the 50 ovres World Cup last year.
As had been reported earlier, India will play all their matches in Dubai and the tussle between India and Pakistan will also take place in the UAE.
“This is an ICC event and BCCI has informed the global body that it won’t travel to Pakistan. It will depend on ICC to inform the host nation about the development and then close in on the scheduling of the tournament. The convention is to announce the schedule 100 days prior to the commencement of the event,’ a BCCI source had told PTI some days back on request for anonymity.
When it comes to venues in India for the games, it is Dubai that should be considered most appropriate as it has the largest capacity of all the three grounds and more so, since they hosted the Women T20 World Cup recently, all the relevant facilities are already in place.
Earlier last year, it was decided to hold the Asia Cup, organized in Pakistan, in a ‘Hybrid Model’ after the Indian team declined to visit the host country.
