The International Cricket Council (ICC) has made an exception for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) - the host of 2025 Champions Trophy which starts February 19. Under the exception, the ICC has allowed the Pak board to host the upcoming tri-nation series including New Zealand and South Africa on two tournament venues - Karachi and Lahore.

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Originally scheduled to be held in Multan, the PCB will now host all four matches of series in Lahore and Karachi (two each) from Feb 8 to Feb 14. This is to test the facilities of the venues ahead of the tournament. 

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Usually, there's three weeks of exclusivity period before the start of an ICC tournament when the global body takes control. This time, the ICC has allowed it for testing of venues.

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"Hosts may seek approval from ICC for activities to take place in venues within the exclusivity window .. PCB has followed the process and the ICC has authorised this ..for the exclusivity period for testing of the venues. Similarly, Dubai stadium is also being used during the exclusivity period for the ILT20," reported media outlet Times of India citing a source.

What is an exclusivity period?

An exclusivity period can be defined as the date from which ICC takes control of the tournament venue to ensure and carry out the last-minute checks. It generally ranges from one to three weeks ahead of the start of the tournament, and during this period, the host nation is not allowed to host any matches to preserve the ground conditions for the tournament.

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The upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 will be played across three venues in Pakistan: Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi, as well as Dubai, UAE, for India's matches.

As per the current exclusivity period, the ICC was supposed to get control of Pak venues on February 12, but now the same has been postponed until the tri-series final, which is scheduled for February 14.

Similarly, the Dubai Stadium was supposed to come under the ICC's purview on February 10 due to the ongoing IL T20 tournament, which gets over on February 9.