The start of the Champions Trophy 2025, which is scheduled to take place in Pakistan in the second week of February, as the draft schedule suggests, is knocking on the door. Yet, there is no news regarding India’s visit to their neighboring country for the upcoming ICC tournament.
India hasn’t made a trip to that country since the 2009 Asia Cup, and the last time both these teams were engaged in a bilateral series was back in 2012 when the Green Brigade made their trip to India. They repeat the same activity during the 2016 T20 World Cup and then the recent ODI World Cup 2023.
Two months before the World Cup, there was Asia Cup 2023, which was hosted partially by Babar Azam’s men’s side. But the BCCI wasn’t fully prepared to make their arrangement for the trip, as they use the hybrid model and feature in all of their games in Sri Lanka along with the final.
India to decide their trip to Pakistan only on the government’s decision
The draft schedule, released by the PCB, has stated that all of India’s games in the Champions Trophy have been placed at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore so that they don’t need to travel a lot in the country.
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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has already signed the budget for the event, besides sending their team to the three venues where the games would be played in Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Lahore, to check the development of the renovations of the stadium and the security assessments too.
The reports have claimed that in the recent meeting with the ICC, the PCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, found the former requesting the members to sign the schedule of the tournament, which will allow them to announce it officially.
But, the question remains if the Blue Brigade will be making their trip to Pakistan for the tournament. The BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla has expressed that a decision will be taken by them only when the government of India approves the whole situation.
“No decision has been taken (yet). But our policy is that for international tours, we always seek the permission of the government. It’s up to the government to decide whether our team should go to any country or our team should not go to any country.” Shukla said to the reporters.
The reason behind avoiding the trip to Pakistan of the Indian team and the players of the Green Brigade for being involved in the IPL was the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, which killed 150 people. The current reports stated that the Indian cricket board seems to be asking the ICC to organize the event, either in Sri Lanka or Dubai.
The PCB is averse to the idea of taking a portion of the tournament out of their country. Recently, their former all-rounder, Hasan Ali, remarked that if India won’t travel to Pakistan, then their board should look to go ahead without the Asia neighbors. But will the ICC allow so given the market and financial structure of the competition?