BCCI yet to decide on India’s travel to Pakistan to ICC Champions Trophy; final call rests with Indian government, says BCCI

Hyderabad: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has said that the Indian government will take a final call on whether the Indian cricket team will travel to Pakistan to play in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Pakistan has the hosting rights for the ICC tournament and the Pakistan Cricket Board, in conjunction with the ICC, has scheduled the tournament from February 19 to March 9, 2025.

The PCB, in an interim schedule sent to the ICC, has slotted all of India’s matches at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, where the Indian cricket team will be based out of.

India and Pakistan have not played in bilateral series due to the escalating political tensions between the two nations. The last time India toured Pakistan was in 2006.

India and Pakistan regularly play in ICC-based tournaments – the World Cups, the Champions Trophy etc – with Pakistan last visiting India in 2023 for the ODI World Cup.

The BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the India vs Bangladesh second Test match at Green Park in Kanpur, said while no decision has been taken by the BCCI, the board will consult the government, as they do for all international tours. The government will decide whether the cricket team can tour a particular nation or not, depending on various factors and Shukla opined that the case would be no different for the ICC Champions Trophy too. “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,” Shukla said.

He added that the board will toe the government’s decision. “In this case also, whatever the government will decide, we will abide by that,” he added.

The last time Pakistan hosted a multi-nation tournament was the Asia Cup in 2023 and given India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan, the tournament was held in a hybrid mode with India playing all their matches in Sri Lanka. Pakistan played all their matches at home and since India qualified for the next stage of the tournament (the knockout stage), the tournament concluded in Sri Lanka.