ICC postpones 2025 Champions Trophy tour

"Exciting news for Pakistan! The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 trophy tour will begin in Islamabad on 16 November, with stops at beautiful destinations like Skardu, Murree, Hunza, and Muzaffarabad. Don't miss the chance to see the trophy that Sarfaraz Ahmed proudly lifted in 2017 at The Oval. The tour will run from 16-24 November. Stay tuned for more updates from the PCB!"

This move didn’t go down well with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and objections have been raised through official channels with the ICC. The BCCI feels the PCB is playing a political game. PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi is also the Interior minister in the Pakistan government.

“BCCI secretary Jay Shah has strongly condemned PCB’s actions. The ICC has taken note of India’s complaint,” an official familiar with developments said.

The trophy tour ahead of an ICC event is an exercise undertaken by the host nation in consultation with the governing body to create some buzz for the event. Ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, the trophy went into the stratosphere, 1,20,000 feet above the Earth, before landing in Ahmedabad, the venue of the final. The announcement for this marketing exercise was made through official ICC channels.

In the current scenario, Indian cricket board officials say, the PCB bypassed protocols knowing that they would not have got the go-ahead from the ICC.

With less than 100 days left before the start of the event, the tournament itself remains shrouded in controversy, with no clarity on where the event will take place. The BCCI has made it known to the ICC that Indian players would not be able to travel to Pakistan for security reasons and that their matches and the final of the tournament (in the event that India makes it to the summit clash) should be relocated to a neutral venue.

“Our stand on the Champions trophy is clear, we do what our government tells us to do. We have already made this known to the ICC,” BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla told ANI on Friday.

The BCCI is batting for the tournament to be staged in a hybrid model, with UAE favourites to stage one half of the 15 matches. This approach is on similar lines to last year’s Asia Cup where India’s matches, originally to be played in Pakistan, were relocated to Sri Lanka. The PCB has proposed Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi as tournament venues with India and Pakistan grouped together along with New Zealand and Bangladesh in the eight-nation event slated for February-March 2025.

The PCB wants all matches to stay in Pakistan and has written to the ICC that the BCCI be asked to convey in writing what their objections are. ICC sources maintain ‘they continue to engage with the host and participating nations’.

Those in Indian cricket establishment are quite clear that there is little possibility of their players being told to cross the border for cricket at this stage. There are also reports quoting Indian intelligence inputs which suggest that travel to Pakistan continues to remain unsafe. India’s men’s team has not toured Pakistan for cricket after the 2008 Asia Cup.

While PCB maintains a hardline stance, commercial success of an ICC event is virtually impossible without India. The ICC may be forced to take the entire tournament out of Pakistan, if the PCB doesn’t soften their stand.

“It would not be in cricket’s interests for India not to be playing in the Champions Trophy,” England and Wales Cricket Board Chairman Richard Thompson recently said. “There’s geopolitics, and then there’s cricketing geopolitics. I think they’ll find a way. They have to find a way.”