CT 2025 row: Pakistan government tells PCB to not play India following BCCI's withdrawal

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has informed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) via email aboutthe decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) ofnot sending its cricket team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in Pakistan in February 2025. The ICC forwarded the communication from BCCI which says that the Government of India has not given permission to its cricket team to travel to Pakistan. On the part of the Pakistani government, top sources say that Islamabad may not allow PCB to participate in any ICC event (2024-2031) if India does not participate in the ICC Champions Trophy or the Champions Trophy can be proposed to be moved out from Pakistan.

The chances of the latter happening are dim given that there can be graver consequences for hosts Pakistan. Such a step of withdrawing from playing India would hurt bothbecause the 2025 Women's World Cup, the 2026 Asia Cup and the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup are scheduled to be hosted by the latter.

“We travelled to India in 2023 despite the hostility and volatile environment, it was under the understanding that if we went to India for the World Cup, India would come to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy. Nothing was opposed then but now these excuses don’t hold ground,”remarked aPCB official. “We also sent our team to India in 2016, and had done the hybrid format of the Asia Cup to accommodate India,”added the official.

PCB is set to writeto the ICC, where it will cite previous examples of when a team forfeits the match, the points are given to the opponent. A suggestion will also be put forward formally to have the event sans Team India, as WION understands as per discussions with PCB and government officials.

Pakistan was given the hosting rights for the ICC Champions Trophy in 2021. They are also the defending champions, having beaten India by a whopping 180 runs in the 2017 edition, at The Oval, London, to clinch the trophy before the tournament was discontinued.

PCB is unrelenting and unsparing not to agree on the hybrid model this time. They are also in the process of deciding not to play against India at any level across any format anywhere in the world. This will surely be a predicament for the ICC. The ratings of an India-Pakistan match are brilliant. In ICC World Cup 2023, the India-Pakistan tie attracted 173 million audience on broadcast and 225 million on digital platforms (collectively 398 million).

There have been at least four ICC Board or Executive Committee Meetings in the last six months and never even the word of India not coming to Pakistan was mentioned, as per a PCBofficial. “Never any discussion on the hybrid model was ever brought on the table”. If Pakistan takes a strong stance, then the ICC’s sponsors can retract their commitments.

Demographically 1.639 billion probable viewership comes from only India and Pakistan, which is almost 40% of the world’s total cricket viewers. The India-Pakistan match is of significant importance for the broadcasters and sponsors in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, such was the format based on team ratings that India and Pakistan were placed in different groups. However, pressured by the stakeholders, the roster was changed and the two teams were placed in the same group.

PCB officials have stated that the board has gone out of its way by exhausting almost USD 18 million instadium upgradationand even offered India to play all their matches at Lahore, also allowing them to travel to Chandigarh or Amritsar after every game. In addition, it has offered assurances to facilitate visa issuance for their spectators.

The ICC security team has travelled to Pakistan and on the part of the government, it has recently hosted the English, New Zealand and Bangladesh. Notably, India last toured Pakistan in 2008 to play the Asia Cup.