The ICC Champions Trophy (CT) 2025 has been scheduled to happen in Pakistan. As of now, all the teams have agreed to travel to the country except India. There has been uncertainty about the Men in Blue travelling to Pakistan to play in the ICC competition. However, Jay Shah was elected as the chairman and will assume office from 1 December 2024. Pakistan hosting the tournament is very vague.
Mr. Shah will be the fifth Indian after Jagmohan Dalmiya, Sharad Pawar, N Srinivasan, and Shashank Manohar to be elected to this high-profile position. However, it will be a lot more challenging than the BCCI role. This might turn the table upside down for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). He has been the president of the Asian Cricket Council and during the Asia Cup 2023, India did not travel to Pakistan.
They played all their games in Sri Lanka and it was a hybrid model. Pakistan has been furious over India’s denial of travelling to their country. Amidst all these speculations on Monday, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vice President Rajeev Shukla stated that the decision on whether the national cricket team will travel to Pakistan for next year’s ICC Champions Trophy will be subject to government sanction.
Pakistan’s Champions Trophy in doubt
Will the political matters between the two countries stop Pakistan as the host? It can be a decision to shift the matches from there. BCCI is the richest board in the world and they have been the majority funding in the ICC as well. So the decision might be going in favour of Indian Cricket because of their power and political influence inside the management
Shukla told reporters, “No decision has been taken (yet). But our policy is that for international tours, we always seek the permission of the government. It’s up to the government to decide whether our team should go to any country or our team should not go to any country. In this case (also), whatever the government will decide, we will abide by that.”
