The International Cricket Council (ICC) doesn’t object to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) proposal of hosting a tri-series with India in a neutral venue. For the unaware, before accepting to host the ICC Champions Trophy in a hybrid model, the PCB had put forth some demands.
PCB’s demands to ICC
The major one, by which the Pakistan cricket team won’t be going to India for any upcoming ICC events until 2027, has been accepted. Two demands were rejected. First was compensation for moving five matches outside of Pakistan, which included the India vs Pakistan match and the knockout matches (semifinal and final). Secondly, PCB wanted India and Pakistan to be drawn into different groups for the Champions Trophy 2025.
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India-Pakistan tri-series, a possibility
The fourth one was playing a tri-series with India at a neutral venue. According to ESPNcricinfo, the ICC has no issues with his request. But they have one stipulation: the third team must be a full-member Asian nation, i.e., one of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or Afghanistan. It might as well be a quadrangular series with an associate nation like Nepal, Oman, or the UAE.
The reason why the ICC doesn’t object to holding a tri-series is that they didn’t compensate PCB for the potential loss of missing out on hosting the biggest match of them all, India vs Pakistan, and at least one semifinal and the final if Team India qualifies.
It has been 12 years since the archrivals played a bilateral series against each other and 16 years since they both decided to feature in a tri-series. The last triangular happened in Bangladesh and was just a 4-match affair with Pakistan beating India in the final.
