For the last five to six months, when the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed that Pakistan is expected to stage the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, it was nearly confirmed that India won’t be making a trip to the neighboring place. But the recent visit to the court of S Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister, has sparked discussion regarding the situation.
The reports have claimed that multiple talks have taken place between Jaishankar and the Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar before the PCB chairman, who is also a government minister, Mohsin Naqvi, joined the discussion. Whether India will take their trip to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy is up to the Indian government and not the BCCI or the ICC.
The relations between these two countries damaged, since the terror attack in 2008 in Mumbai, which ruled out the Pakistan players from participating in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Later, they visited to this part of the border for the 2012 bilateral series before returning to the country for the 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2023 ODI World Cup.
The Blue Brigade, however, hasn’t toured there since the 2008 Asia Cup and has faced the opponent only during the ICC tournaments. The PCB has seemingly written to the BCCI, offering the Indian team to make a return to either Chandigarh or Delhi after each of their game if they want to avoid staying in Pakistan due to security concerns.
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For that, the board is ready to keep a week-long gap between two games for India, which will allow the players to get enough rest.
Broadcasters in discussion regarding the trip from India to Pakistan
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has formed a draft schedule, where the tournament is expected to take place from February 19 to March 09, with all of the matches for the BCCI having been allotted to Lahore. The others are going to be staged in Rawalpindi and Karachi. Lahore has been chosen because of the close proximity of the border and would be easier for the fans to cross over for the games.
The three games for the Rohit Sharma-led side have been scheduled on February 20 against Bangladesh, 23 against Pakistan, and on March 02 against the New Zealand side. However, a few developments have grown regarding the whole situation.
The ICC has circulated the program to the participating teams and the stakeholders. The national media has suggested that the broadcaster has requested the ICC to relocate the India-New Zealand game to a different venue, as the PCB has proposed the Pindi stadium as an alternative. However, both the ICC and the broadcaster have denied such claims.
India could write to the ICC to follow the hybrid model with which they played all of their games of the Asia Cup 2023 in Sri Lanka. Now, they can go back to the same place or get engaged in their games in Dubai. The ICC and PCB know about holding the games, potentially, for the current T20 World champions outside Pakistan if the Men in Blue don’t travel.
“There are lots of different alternatives and contingencies available if that doesn’t happen. I wouldn’t have thought (it would be played without the Indian side), because if you play the Champions Trophy without India, the broadcast rights aren’t there, and we need to protect them.” Richard Thompson, the ECB chair, was quoted as saying.
It’s now up to the Indian government. The BCCI officials have ruled out PCB’s proposal of returning to India after every single game, but will they play the tournament in Pakistan? It’s not up to the Indian board after all.