The vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Rajiv Shukla has denied all the fake stories about the Indian cricket team not traveling to Pakistan for the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy 2025, stated that they are yet to make a piece of official information on that.
India, due to the political issues between their neighbor country Pakistan, has yet to tour this place since the 2008 Asia Cup, even though the ‘Men in Green’ have come to this side of the border during the 2012 bilateral series, or during the 2016 T20 World Cup and the recent ODI World Cup 2023 too.
The PCB is doing its best in trying to get the Rohit Sharma-led side, to make their arrival in this country for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which if happens could make a smooth cricketing relationship between the two sides.
Rajiv Shukla denies all the claims of India going to Pakistan
The Pakistan Cricket Board also divided the eight teams into two groups for the competition, where they are in ‘Group A’ along with the neighboring countries, New Zealand and Bangladesh, while ‘Group B’ consists of England, South Africa, Australia, and Afghanistan.
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According to the provisional schedule, all the games for the Blue Brigade would be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, will see the Blue Brigade facing Bangladesh on February 20, while they take on New Zealand on February 23 and the most anticipated clash of competition, the India-Pakistan clash occurs on March 1.
Once the round-robin phase of the tournament ends, the two semifinals will take place in Karachi and Rawalpindi on March 05 and 06 respectively, while the final will take place on March 09, in Lahore.
The reports have expressed that the BCCI will strictly follow what the government is saying, and if they give the green signal, then they will surely think of going there. But the current situation doesn’t indicate so, as they are planning to organize their games either in Sri Lanka or Dubai.
ANI reported that the BCCI has asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to host the competition in a hybrid model. However, the BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla has observed that no such decisions have been made yet by either the government or the board.
‘We do not know which source gave such information. BCCI has not put out any official information regarding this.’ Shukla noted to ‘The Free Press Journal’.
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When he was asked to have his say on the same decision towards the start of this year, R Shukla addressed that whatever the Government of India tells them to do, they would go with that.
‘In the case of the Champions Trophy, we will do whatever the Government of India tells us to do.’ Rajiv Shukla said. ‘We will send our team only when the Government of India permits. So we will go according to the decision of the Indian government.’
The last time India won the Champions Trophy, the year was 2013 as they played under MS Dhoni, while in 2017, they lost to Pakistan, who are now the defending champions, winning it under Sarfaraz Ahmed.
