Pakistan are the host of the Champions Trophy in 2025 but there are doubts whether they will be able to do so due to the country’s political tensions with neighbour India, the heavyweights in world cricket. Earlier, India refused to travel to Pakistan this year for the Asia Cup as the tournament was hosted in a hybrid model – with Sri Lanka hosting the majority of matches including the final.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has now urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) that they will sign the hosting agreement with the condition that the board will be compensated if India refuse to travel to the country citing political and security reasons.
According to PTI, the ICC has yet not signed the important hosting agreement with PCB as Pakistan are marked as the host of the Champions Trophy 2025 by the governing body.
The PCB source disclosed that PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf and COO Salman Naseer had met the ICC executive board in Ahmedabad to discuss the hosting of the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in February-March, 2025.
“Pakistani officials discussed the probability of the Indian board (BCCI) again refusing to send its team to Pakistan and made it clear that in any given situation the ICC must avoid taking unilateral decisions on the tournament,” the source said.
He said the PCB officials had told ICC that if India refuses to play in Pakistan on security grounds, the global body should appoint an independent security agency.
The PCB further said the agency could liaison with Pakistan government and security officials to assess the security situation of the participating teams including India.
“The PCB officials said many top teams had toured Pakistan in the last two years without any security concerns.
“They also made it clear that in case of India not sending its team and its matches being moved to another country, then the ICC must compensate Pakistan for this,” the source added.
He said the PCB officials were clear that given the relation between Pakistan and Indian governments there was a high probability of India again backing out of playing in the country on security and political grounds.
Earlier, during Asia Cup, Pakistan hosted only four games despite being the hosts of the tournament. Rohit Sharma and Co. played their matches in Sri Lanka and also won the trophy playing in Colombo.
The source said Ashraf and Naseer were clear at the ICC meeting that Pakistan would not give up its hosting rights.
“The BCCI representative maintained that any call on India playing in Pakistan in 2025 would only be taken by their government and they were bound to follow the decision,” he said.
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