The BCCI informed the ICC this week of the Indian government’s decision not to allow India to visit Pakistan. This decision was officially conveyed by the ICC to the PCB on Friday, which has now reached out to its government for next steps.
“The ICC has sent an email to the PCB informing them of the BCCI’s inability to send its team to Pakistan,” a PCB spokesperson told PK Press Club. “No reason has been given. We have not received any writing from the BCCI. The PCB has informed the federal government about the situation.”
The PCB has taken a more rigid stance on hosting the tournament – the first ICC event in the country since 1996 – with board chairman Mohsin Naqvi very clearly ruling out a hybrid organizational model on Friday. Such a model, used in the 2023 Asia Cup hosted by Pakistan, would see India play its matches outside Pakistan and all non-Indian matches in Pakistan.
Given that Naqvi is the Interior Minister of Pakistan, this position can be considered representative of that of the government in this matter. An official close to the situation said the Pakistani government would consider ordering the PCB to stand firm, reject the hybrid model and insist that the entire tournament be held in Pakistan. This would be a directive that the CPC would not be able to ignore, just as the BCCI is incapable of acting against its own government’s directive.
This leaves the ICC, 100 days before the start of the Champions Trophy, in a particularly difficult situation with simmering political issues between its two main full members threatening to boil over – unsurprising given that the Naqvi’s counterpart in the BCCI, Jay Shah, is the son of Naqvi’s counterpart in the Indian government, Home Minister Amit Shah. The situation will not get any simpler when Shah takes over as ICC president on December 1.
The India-Pakistan rivalry is the marquee match of all global events, and organizers have long ensured that they face each other at least once in every tournament since the 2013 Champions Trophy. It is regularly the match that attracts the most attention. But indications within this PCB administration suggest that their government may not allow Pakistan to travel to India for future ICC events – the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup is the next such event. On Friday, Naqvi had warned that the “gestures” Pakistan had made in the past may not be repeated: he was referring to Pakistan’s trip to India for the Men’s ODI World Cup in 2023, just after India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup. Cup.
Last month, ECB Director General Richard Gould clearly highlighted the importance of India and Pakistan to ICC events and to the global cricket ecosystem. “If you play the Champions Trophy without India or Pakistan, the broadcast rights are not there and we have to protect them,” he said during a visit to Pakistan during the Test series of England in the country.
An event in Lahore this week to launch the calendar and begin the 100-day countdown has been postponed in light of the developing situation. Instead, the PCB is expected to push the ICC this week to obtain in writing from the BCCI the reason for its decision and the specific reasons why the Indian government is preventing its team from traveling. The ICC has been contacted for comment.
As of now, the eight-team event is scheduled to be played between February 19 and March 9, in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi. The stadiums at all three venues have been renovated and upgraded to varying degrees to be ready for the event. Pakistan are the defending champions after winning the event in 2017.
