Champions Trophy 2025: ICC likely to shift the tournament out of Pakistan as India’s participation remains uncertain: Cricket’s governing-body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is reportedly considering changing the venues for next year’s mega event, Champions Trophy 2025 as doubts loom over team India’s participation in the marquee event of next year, which is set to be played in Pakistan.
The Government of India has not given any official confirmation to the Indian Cricket Team regarding travelling to Pakistan for the upcoming tournament.
The uncertainty regarding the participation of India seems to be more serious with Richard Thompson and Richard Gould, chairman and CEO of the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) stating that a countless number of alternatives will be considered if the Men in Blue are not given the allowance to travel to Pakistan next year for the Champions Trophy, as reported by India-Today.
The Men in Blue and the Green Shirts last played a bilateral-series versus each other 11 years ago in 2013 when Pakistan came on a tour of India.
Ever since 2008, the two fierce-rivals have faced each other on neutral-venues with Pakistan travelling to India for the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 International World Cup and most recently the 2023 ODI World Cup.
With the ever rising tensions between the two nations, India’s Cricket Governing-Body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given a suggestion of hosting the Men in Blue’s Champions Trophy 2025 matches in Dubai, UAE thereby asking for hybrid-model for the 2024 T20 World Cup winners.
Moreover, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is considering the possibility of exploring three hosting-options for next year’s marquee event, with one of them being letting all of the matches of the tournament take place in Pakistan, as planned.
Champions Trophy 2025: ICC is considering three alternative hosting options for the tournament if India don’t travel to Pakistan
According to some news-reports, the Cricket Governing-Body is considering organising the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy in a hybrid-model in which Dubai and Pakistan will act as the co-hosts. This model will let India play its matches in the UAE and the semi-finals and the all-important final might also take place in Dubai.
According to India-Today, the final option for the ICC would be to move the entire competition out of Pakistan and host it in either South Africa, Dubai or Sri Lanka.
Reports claim that despite the Pakistan’s Cricket Governing-Body, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) retaining the hosting-rights of the competition, the International Cricket Council is likely to opt for the hybrid-model option or they might end up changing the entire itinerary of the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025.
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For more information, visit the official website of ICC
