ICC, PCB and BCCI agree on hybrid model for Champions Trophy 2025
Cricket
Pakistan will not tour India for ICC events, neither India will tour Pakistan for Champion Trophy.
DUBAI (Dunya News/Agencies) - International Cricket Council (ICC), Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have reached an in-principle agreement to adopt the hybrid model for global tournaments being hosted in Pakistan or India until 2027.
This arrangement would allow Pakistan and India to play their games at ICC tournaments being hosted by the other at a neutral venue.
BCCI agreed to PCB fusion formula till 2027 for all men’s and women’s ICC tournaments. Pakistan will not tour to India for all ICC events, neither India will tour Pakistan for ICC Champion Trophy 2025. All matches will be played at neutral venues.
India's Champions Trophy games will be played at a separate a neutral venue probably Dubai. If India made it to the knockout stages, then at least one semi-final and potentially the final will be played outside Pakistan.
The PCB has also proposed organizing a tri-nation series involving India, Pakistan and another country to offset any financial loss suffered by either board due to matches involving India and Pakistan being played elsewhere.
The development emerged on Thursday after meetings between the new ICC chair Jay Shah and PCB chair Mohsin Naqvi. They met in Dubai, on the sidelines of a courtesy board meeting arranged by Shah. A Board meeting to discuss the Champions Trophy has been scheduled for December 7.
There is likely to be more back and forth between the two boards and the ICC on the matter, with the final call likely to be taken at the Board meeting on December 7.
PCB had planned for a February 19 start to the Champions Trophy, with Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi as the host cities. But, because of the impasse between the PCB and BCCI - the latter told the ICC last month that it could not travel to Pakistan for the tournament because it did not have the Indian government's clearance - the ICC has not been able to release a schedule for the event.
The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy will be the ninth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament. It will be organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and will be contested by the top eight ranked men's national teams from the 2023 Cricket World Cup. The tournament will be hosted by Pakistan from 19 February to 9 March 2025. Pakistan are the defending champions, having won the previous edition in 2017.
Pakistan was announced as the host of the ICC Champions Trophy on 16 November 2021. It will be first global tournament that will be hosted by Pakistan since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team. The last major tournament to take place in the country was the 1996 Cricket World Cup which it co-hosted with India and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan qualified for the competition automatically as hosts and will be joined by seven other highest-ranked teams from the 2023 Cricket World Cup group stage including Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand and South Africa
This was the first time former champions Sri Lanka failed to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament, while Afghanistan will make their debut appearance in the tournament.
