When will the 2025 Champions Trophy be held and hosted? This probably is the most pertinent concern that world cricket has at the moment. Pakistan is the official host for the Champions Trophy 2025 while India is the central hub in world cricket because of its financial muscle. Now BCCI has communicated to ICC that they will not be going to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. India and Pakistan don’t engage each other in bilateral series given the political enmity. The two players meet only in the ICC tournaments and Asian Cricket Council rating competitions.
Last time, India visited Pakistan in 2006. Now that the Indian team is not ready to tour Pakistan, the Pakistan cricket board has adopted a no-nonsense approach. It has stated that a ‘hybrid model’ of hosting is out of the question. It has also corresponded to the ICC seeking to know the justification for the BCCI’s refusal to go to Pakistan from the BCCI in writing.
Now, based on a video report from Sports Tak, it is learned that the BCCI’s reply will most likely include a substantial amount of content regarding the threat to the safety of the players of the Indian cricket team.
The report further claimed that with the response that the BCCI is filing with the ICC, there is also an attachment which conveys that the BCCI has issues with the terrorist activities in Pakistan. It talks of cross-border terrorism and also the potential risk of Indian players in Pakistan. Even though the Indian cricket team earns admiration from the general public there is always that possibility that terrorists will attack the Indian players focalizing how they did in 2009 to the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan. It will also give details about the terrorism attacks which took place in Pakistan in the preceding year.
The stand of both the PCB and the BCCI do not seem to change anytime soon, which leaves the International Cricket Council (or ICC) which is expected to intervene in such matters, with only three actions to take themselves. They are:
- Persuade the PCB to accept the BCCI hybrid model method of running the tournament which entails five games of the 15 games being played in UAE.
- Remove the Champions trophy from Pakistan completely but this action infers that the PCB may opt not to send its team to participate in this tournament.
- Make an announcement that the Champions Trophy will be held at a later period in time. This decision can negatively affect the income that will be generated by the ICC and the PCB respectively since both are expected to cash in heavily on the tournament.