When a major ICC event is about to start, there is a build-up. What will the teams look like? Talk about match-ups. How’ll the pitches behave? These are the things people talk about. However, when it comes to the Champions Trophy 2025, it’s completely opposite. All the discussions happening about the event that’ll start in February next year are about whether India will travel to Pakistan.
The Men in Blue haven’t travelled to Pakistan in 16 years, and from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like that streak will end next year. But the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) isn’t budging. They’re renovating their venues, budget, and a proposed schedule for the event cleared by the ICC as well. They are adamant about hosting the tournament on their home soil.
Jay Shah plays coy
The PCB knows that India probably won’t come, and so they have made a contingency plan just to be safe. Their chief, Mohsin Naqvi, has also told all the PCB officials to stay quiet on the matter. No comments or statements are to be made about the ICC Champions Trophy, and everything has to be left to the ICC.
Naqvi’s counterpart, Jay Shah, seems to be following the same formula. The BCCI Secretary was asked about ‘BCCI’s stand’ regarding the ICC Champions Trophy and whether India would travel to Pakistan. His answer was much like Naqvi’s directly to PCB officials. “No stand as of now. We will cross the bridge when it comes,” he said to the Times of India.
We are at a stalemate. Who’ll bend the knees before? That’s the question.
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