The BCCI has reportedly informed the ICC that Team India will not travel to Pakistan for the upcoming Champions Trophy in 2025, forcing the International Cricket Council to consider a ‘hybrid’ model for the tournament. With the event fast approaching, both the ICC and PCB will need to quickly assess the situation and finalise the schedule for the marquee event.
The BCCI has stated that the decision to not send Rohit Sharma’s team to Pakistan was made after receiving advice from the Indian government, according to a report by ESPNcricinfo. Meanwhile, another report from news agency PTI suggests that the ICC is now contemplating conducting the tournament in a ‘hybrid’ format, with India’s matches being held in Dubai.
“This is an ICC event and BCCI has informed the global body that it won’t travel to Pakistan. It will depend on ICC to inform the host nation about the development and then close in on the scheduling of the tournament. The convention is to announce the schedule 100 days prior to the commencement of the event,” a BCCI source quoted by PTI stated
Notably, BCCI does not conduct any bilateral events with Pakistan and the two neighbours only face off against each other during global events. However, the BCCI had also refused to send their team to Asia Cup in Pakistan last year while PCB did give the green light for Pakistan team to travel to India for last year’s ODI World Cup 2023.
PCB Chairman denies any talks of Hybrid model:
The new reports come just days after Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi claimed that no discussions were held with BCCI or ICC about adopting a hybrid model for Champions Trophy.
“No discussions have been held regarding a hybrid model as of today, and we are not ready to discuss such a model,” Naqvi was quoted by The Dawn as saying
“If we get a letter from India, I’ll have to go to my government and have to abide by their decisions. Pakistan has shown great gestures to India in the past, and we’d like to say clearly India shouldn’t expect such friendly gestures from us every time (if they don’t travel for CT). The government will decide if Pakistan travel for any future event in India if they don’t come to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. The PCB will not decide that.” Naqvi said