Okay, so as things stand, Team India is not going to Pakistan for Champions Trophy 2025. No one knows for now if PCB would eventually give into India’s demand of hosting the tournament in hybrid model, where all India matches would be held in UAE, or if India would not play at all. On Monday, there was a lot of buzz around how India confirmed their stance, with their ex-players spewing venom.
In the meantime, PCB has also asked ICC to intervene to know the exact status. They are also looking at legal options if India does not travel to Pakistan, and there are murmurs that they won’t participate in ICC events, if India doesn’t succumb. So, in short, it is a stalemate. The ex-Pakistani players have also been voicing their opinions on the entire situation.
Pakistan’s Asia Cup 2025 threat
Amidst all this drama, BCCIs stance has remained clear, that the green light needs to come from the government. Now, even before this Champions Trophy issue is sorted, another issue is looming large upon both the parties involved here. India is scheduled to host the Asia Cup 2025 in Sept-Oct, and then PAK’s participation could be in jeopardy.
Looking at the reactions from within Pakistan, it seems, they would consider not travelling to India, for Asia Cup 2025, which is supposed to be played in T20 format, and will also have teams like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and UAE. In fact, both India and Pakistan are put in Group A, and are scheduled to face each other there.
All eyes on Jay Shah
Most importantly, as of now BCCI secretary Jay Shah is the ACC chief, under whose aegis the tournament is held. And the next in line is PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi. So, it is a difficult situation that the BCCI faces. It must be reminded, that PCB and Pakistan had to earlier give into India’s demand of not playing Asia Cup 2023 there. Instead all their matches were held in Sri Lanka.
So, as of now, there seems to be no clear solution for this mess, until one party decides to let go. Plus, the time for India might just be running out, since all the other teams have expressed no real “security concern” in going to Pakistan.
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