Gearing up it’s preparations to host the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has shortlisted three venues in their draft schedule, as the board potentially anticipates a first visit by India in 17 years.
Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi are the three venues where the PCB is planning to host the two-week Champions Trophy, and considering the proximity with the Wagah border, the Indian team could be based out of Lahore, which is also likely to host the final.
The reason behind basing India entirely in Lahore could be to avoid the logistical and security hassles around their travel.
Earlier this week, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi said that the board had sent a draft schedule of the tournament, likely to be staged in mid-February next year, to the ICC. He expected all the eight teams to be a part of the tournament even as India’s participation entirely remains on the decision of the Indian government.
No Indian team has toured Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup as relations between the two nations deteriorated steadily and often sharply since, especially after the barbaric Mumbai terror attacks the same year.
Last year, when Pakistan hosted the Asia Cup, they were forced to conduct the tournament in a hybrid model in which India played all their games – including those against Pakistan – in Sri Lanka. The final of the tournament, won by India, was held in Colombo.
A couple of months later, Pakistan, however, despite initial hesitations, agreed to travel to India to play the 2023 ODI World Cup. The Babar Azam-led side ended up playing across five venues, before being eliminated in the group stages.
The Champions Trophy is the first ICC event that Pakistan is expected to host since the 1996 World Cup, when they were joint hosts with India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan was due to stage the event in 2008, but it was postponed and then relocated to South Africa because of the security situation in Pakistan at the time.
Pakistan also lost out on co-hosting duties for the 2011 ODI World Cup, with the 2009 terror attacks on the Sri Lanka team meaning no international cricket in the country for the next six years.
International cricket resumed in Pakistan in 2015 and since then all the eight proposed Champions Trophy participating countries, except India, have travelled to the country. Pakistan are the defending champions of the tournament, last held in 2017.