ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would put in its full efforts to ensure the country hosts the Champions Trophy 2025 cricket tournament next year, the board’s chairman Moshin Naqvi said this week, amid fears that some matches of the tournament would be shifted to neutral venues to accommodate the Indian cricket team, which has refused to travel to Pakistan in the past.
Pakistan, which won the last edition of the tournament played in 2017, has the hosting rights for the 50-over cricket tournament. The teams confirmed for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy are Pakistan, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Afghanistan, England, Bangladesh.
However, Pakistan’s efforts to ensure the tournament is played in its entirety on its soil may be hampered by the Indian team’s refusal to tour the country due to political tensions. Last year, India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan to play their Asia Cup fixtures there forced the PCB to settle for a “hybrid model.” As per the model, Pakistan hosted only four matches of the Asia Cup while the other nine were played in Sri Lanka.
Naqvi, who is also the country’s interior minister, embarked on a daylong trip to Dubai last week to attend an International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting where he met Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“Some things are sensitive which I don’t want to get into myself before something happens,” Naqvi told reporters during a press conference in Karachi on Monday. “[We are putting in] full efforts but the rest is up to Allah. But we will not leave behind anything in our efforts to hold the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.”
The PCB chairman said the stadiums in Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi cities would be upgraded before the mega tournament kicks off.
“We are targeting these three stadiums. Once work on them is completed then I will go toward other stadiums,” he said.
India’s refusal to tour Pakistan disappoints millions of cricket fans on both sides of the border. An India-Pakistan cricket match is always a big-ticket clash, raking in millions of eyeballs across the world and drawing in renowned broadcasters.
Despite India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup, the Pakistan cricket team traveled to the neighboring country in September 2023 to participate in the 50-over World Cup there.
It was the first time in seven years that the South Asian country sent its cricket team to India. The last time Pakistan’s men’s cricket team set foot on Indian soil was in 2016 to take part in that year’s T20 World Cup.
The two teams will once again lock horns in this year’s T20 World Cup on June 9. The match is scheduled to take place in New York.
