ICC Champions Trophy 2025: There is still controversy over Champions Trophy 2025. But now soon an official announcement will be made about it. Pakistan Cricket Board was not ready for the hybrid model earlier. But according to reports, now it is ready. Team India can play all its matches in Dubai. But the schedule for the tournament has not been officially announced yet. One semi-final of the tournament can be held in Lahore and one in Dubai.
The matter regarding Champions Trophy 2025 is still completely stuck. India has clearly refused to tour Pakistan and after a lot of talks, Pakistan has finally agreed to conduct the tournament in the hybrid model, but the Pakistan Cricket Board has also placed a big condition in front of the ICC. According to reports PCB has told the ICC that it will organize the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in a hybrid model only if the ICC tournaments to be held in India till 2031 are played on a hybrid model.
Apart from this, the Pakistan Cricket Board has put forward another condition. A PCB source has informed that the PCB also wants a higher share of the ICC’s annual revenue cycle. The PCB source said that the current situation is that PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has said that he will accept hosting the Champions Trophy on a hybrid model only if the board agrees that all ICC tournaments in future will be held on this system and Pakistan will not go to play matches in India.
Four ICC tournaments will be in danger
India has to play four ICC tournaments by the year 2031. In which the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup and the T20 World Cup are to be played in 2026. Apart from India, Sri Lanka also has its hosting. Both countries will jointly organize the T20 World Cup. Apart from this, the Champions Trophy to be held in 2029 and the 2031 ODI World Cup are also included.
However, Bangladesh also has the hosting rights of this ODI World Cup. If the ICC agrees to this, then all these four tournaments will come under controversy. Due to which the players will have to face a lot of trouble. However, no answer has been given by the International Cricket Council (ICC) yet regarding this condition of Pakistan.
Also Read: Fuel Prices in UAE Dropped: Know How Much it will Cost to Full Tank in December
Semi-final matches can be held in Lahore and Dubai
If media reports are to be believed, Team India can play all its matches in Dubai. PCB has placed two conditions before the ICC in exchange for accepting the hybrid model. One of these conditions is regarding funds. PCB says that it will need more funds. With this, Team India’s matches will be able to be held in Dubai, UAE. Along with this, one semi-final match of the tournament can be held in Dubai and the other semi-final match in Lahore.
Suggested Read: DP World ILT20 Season 3: Check Full Schedule, Venue and Timings
The tournament could be now played across four venues now, with Dubai hosting India’s matches. For the knockout stages maybe the semifinal or the final, venue will be in Dubai. As of now that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has agreed to host ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in a hybrid format the question arises that whether India vs Pakistan match will take place or not. The 8 team tournament was planned to be played in three venues (Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi).
What would have been the option if Pakistan had not agreed?
If the Pakistan Cricket Board had not agreed to the hybrid model, it could have faced a lot of problems. It would not have been possible to play the Champions Trophy without India. The ICC would have suffered a huge financial loss due to the absence of Team India. The second option was that hosting rights would have been given to some other country instead of Pakistan. In such a situation, the Pakistan Cricket Board would have suffered a loss.