The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) may lose the hosting rights of the Champions Trophy 2025 or some games may be shifted to the UAE, India Today's SportsTak reported on Monday. The host country for the Champions Trophy 2025 is Pakistan, but the International Cricket Council (ICC) has yet to sign the hosting rights agreements with the PCB.
SportsTak reported that this tournament can be held in any other country instead of Pakistan. There is also a possibility that the Champions Trophy may be organized in UAE. Even if Pakistan is successful in hosting the Champions Trophy, it may have to resort to a hybrid model as happened with the Asia Cup 2023.
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If this happens, some matches may be held in Pakistan while the rest may be held abroad in a neutral country. Champions Trophy 2025 is to scheduled be held in February-March. For the first time, Pakistan has got the opportunity to host an ICC tournament alone. However, the chances of India travelling to Pakistan are near zero. If India does not travel, a hybrid model can be adopted to continue with the Champions Trophy.
For Asia Cup 2023, India refused to travel to Pakistan, which was the host country. Following this, India's matches were shifted to Sri Lanka. India has not travelled to Pakistan since 2008 due to tense bilateral relations between both countries.
The PCB officials recently discussed with the ICC executive board in Ahmedabad the probability of the Indian board BCCI again refusing to send its team to Pakistan.
PTI reported on Sunday that PCB urged the ICC to sign the Champions Trophy 2025 hosting rights agreements with it. The board told the global body that it should be compensated if India refused to travel to the country citing security reasons.
"The PCB officials said many top teams had toured Pakistan in the last two years without any security concerns. They also made it clear that in case of India not sending its team and its matches being moved to another country, then the ICC must compensate Pakistan for this," the news agency quoted a source as saying.