The cricket world is shocked after the unofficial talks suggested the Indian government has refused to grant clearance for the BCCI to send the team to Pakistan for the tournament.
According to reports the ICC will announce the schedule for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on November 11 but they will provide only the dates and not the full schedule as finalizing venues for the tournament would take some more time.
BCCI is expected to officially meet the government. Given that a schedule of this event generally comes out three months ahead of time and with no indication of Indian participation, the situation is pretty challenging for both the ICC and PCB.
The reports suggest that it may take another month before the government could give the final clearance to BCCI to send the Indian team to Pakistan. In the present circumstances, it becomes highly possible that the Indian team could not travel to Pakistan.
So far, there has been no positive development on this front, with the Indian government still going all out against the team being sent to Pakistan. This can always change if things improve between the two countries significantly during the next month.
Earlier it was reported that the ICC has three alternatives for hosting the Champions Trophy 2025. The first one is a full-fledged possibility where the entire tournament shall be held in Pakistan.
Secondly, the authorities have floated a hybrid model in which all the matches of the tournament shall take place in Pakistan except the ones against India. As per this plan, the semi-final and the final will take place in Dubai.
The other option would be to move the entire tournament outside Pakistan, probably to Dubai, Sri Lanka, or South Africa. The ICC is said to have come prepared with budgets for all three options, and any such move away from Pakistan would in itself carry a great implication for the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Although the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will still retain hosting rights for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, shifting the tournament out of Pakistan would be a major development.
