There is good news for Pakistan ahead of the Champions Trophy 2025 which will be held in February-March next year. A meeting of the International Cricket Council was recently held in Dubai.
The meeting was organized to discuss the events and security issues related to next year’s Champions Cup. Discussions were also held regarding India’s visit to Pakistan.
It should be noted that all the participating countries except India have confirmed their visit to Pakistan, BCCI has already announced that they will seek permission from the Indian government before sending their team.
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Pakistan gets good news ahead of Champions Trophy 2025
According to Cricket Pakistan, the last encounter was fruitful for Pakistan as none of the participating countries raised any travel concerns. The feedback received was positive and is now part of the official record.
That means India don’t have much reason to deny their trip to the Champions Trophy. The report said that India tried its best to appease some of its close allies, but failed.
In 2023, India convinced its close allies to allow the Asia Cup to be held in a hybrid model. The 2023 Asia Cup was supposed to be held in Pakistan, but India refused to visit due to security concerns.
As a result, India’s matches, including the final. Held in Sri Lanka. India won the tournament by defeating Sri Lanka in the final. The upcoming Champions Cup is also likely to be held in this way.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar recently visited Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit and highly appreciated the hospitality in this country. This could be a big reason why India cannot rule out a trip to Pakistan.
ICC is concerned about India’s involvement
While the PCB is confident of hosting the entire tournament, the ICC is worried about the BCCI’s refusal to send an Indian team to the tournament. This is the reason why the final schedule of the tournament has not been announced yet.
According to the draft, ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be held from February 19 to March 9 in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. This is the first ICC tournament to be held in Pakistan since the 1996 ODI World Cup.
India’s last visit to Pakistan
India have not visited Pakistan since 2008 when the country hosted the Asia Cup. India finished second in that tournament. Both India and Pakistan do not play each other except in ICC tournaments or Asia Cups.
The main reason why India does not want to play with Pakistan is the strained political relations between the two nations. The last bilateral series played between them was in 2013 when Pakistan toured India for a T20I and ODI series.
Although India has consistently denied traveling to Pakistan, the Green Men regularly traveled to neighboring countries. They recently visited India for the 2023 ODI World Cup where they failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
