ICC Champions Trophy 2025 to shift from Pakistan to UAE completely? Here's why

The next big destination for cricket fans is the upcoming mega event. It is the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which is all set to take place in Pakistan and the UAE. We are just five weeks away from the ninth edition, as the tournament will kick off on January 19 in Karachi.

The top 8 teams will be taking part in the tournament and will be divided into two groups of four teams each. But with a little over one month left in the start of the mega event, the drama continues to take new episodes.

Firstly, it was the tensions between the Indian Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board that forced the ICC to go for a hybrid model where India will play all their matches in Dubai after the Indian Board refused to send their team to Pakistan, citing security concerns.

Pakistan to lose the hosting rights of ICC Champions Trophy 2025?

As a result, the ICC added the UAE as the venue for Indian matches in Dubai, which will be a neutral venue. But it looks like the clouds of uncertainty have loomed once again over the hosting rights of the events. As per the latest media reports, it has been learned that the construction work at the three shortlisted venues in Pakistan is nowhere near done. There are 35 left in the start of the tournament, and the renovation work, which began in August last year, has not been completed.

The deadline to complete the renovation work was December 31, which has passed. According to the Times of India, the stadiums are still far away from the completion of the work. As per the TOI's source, some parts of the stadium are still under construction, and the finishing work will take a bit longer. The work to be done related to fencing and placing of floodlights and some other detailing work is still pending.

The three venues to host matches are National Bank Stadium in Karachi, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, and Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. This came to notice when the PCB decided to shift the coming ODI tri-series in Pakistan, involving New Zealand and South Africa, from Multan to Lahore and Karachi.

However, the PCB has declined all such rumours and said that the work will be done as planned. Notably, the ICC will schedule an inspection, and a team will be sent to check the arrangements of all three venues. PCB will hand over all three venues to ICC on February 12. But if the shortlisted stadiums don't meet the expectations by then, the ICC can shift the entire ICC Champions Trophy 2025 to the UAE.

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