The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have said that they would prefer shifting the schedule and venue of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 to suit to no-entry policy of Indian team to Pakistan. The current world champions Pakistan, that are slated to host the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, they have tentatively scheduled all India’s fixtures for the tournament at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
But considering the politics that exist between India and Pakistan, the Indian government could not allow the Indian cricket team to travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 tournament. As a result, the PCB is now considering to bring the tournament in hybrid fashion where India will play their games in the United Arab Emirates.
This will be the second time that Pakistan is organizing any big multi-nation tournament on hybrid format. The Asia Cup in 2023 was hosted the same way after India claimed they cannot travel to Pakistan. This tournament was organized jointly by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where India competed in all their league games in Sri Lanka only. The final was also hosted in Sri Lanka because India had reached the knockout stages in the tournament.
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As per media reports, India can have all their games in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah while Pakistan can have all their games in their country. Only the degree of practicability would be of interest in regard to how other teams would be able to play Pakistan and the rest of the teams in Pakistan and vice versa in the situation where they come across India in UAE.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is also awaiting a word from the PCB regarding the said change of schedule. The ICC, on their part, cannot ask any cricket board to operate against its government policy and the call to hold the tournament on a hybrid basis can only come from the Pakistan Cricket Board. It is also still waiting to unveil the fixtures for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 next week. As per the provisional schedule issued out by PCB, the ICC Champions Trophy is set to commence from February 19, 2025 with Pakistan facing New Zealand in Karachi.
The PCB has fixed the final for 9th of March, 2025, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The PCB is on the process of conducting the tournament in National Stadium in Karachi, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi and Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore and the Pakistan Cricket Board is in the process of renovating the stadiums in the three venues.