https://arab.news/y785f
- Doubts persist over whether tournament will take place in Pakistan after India’s refusal to send cricket team
- Media outlets say PCB, ICC have reached deal to adopt “hybrid” model for Champions Trophy tournament
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Moshin Naqvi on Sunday promised the nation would receive “good news” about the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 cricket tournament to be hosted by Pakistan, as a standoff with India, which has refused to send its cricket team to the country, persists.
Pakistan is scheduled to host the Champions Trophy 2025 tournament from February to March 2025 in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. However, the fate of the tournament remains unclear after India refused to tour Pakistan last month due to political tensions between the two countries.
Media outlets, however, have reported that after several rounds of discussions between the PCB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the International Cricket Council (ICC), the ICC and the PCB are believed to have reached an agreement to adopt the hybrid model for global tournaments being hosted in Pakistan or India until 2027.
Such an arrangement would allow the two to play their games at ICC tournaments being hosted by the other at a neutral venue.
“God willing, good news about the upcoming Champions Trophy will come out soon,” Naqvi said in a statement after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday, as per the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Naqvi reiterated that Pakistan was “fully prepared” to host the tournament on its soil, adding that he wanted Pakistan and cricket to both win.
Sharif threw his support behind Naqvi, saying that he had represented all 240 million Pakistanis at a recent ICC meeting in Dubai regarding the Champions Trophy.
“Pakistan’s respect comes first and then comes everything else,” Sharif was quoted as saying by the PMO.
Political tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan have restricted cultural exchanges and bilateral sports events between the two nations.
The two neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India’s national cricket team has not toured Pakistan since 2008 due to soured political relations between the two neighbors, who play each other only in global multi-team tournaments at neutral venues.
Pakistan hosted the Asia Cup last year but was forced to shift all of India’s matches to Sri Lanka under a hybrid model after India refused to send its team to Pakistan.