Champions Trophy 2025: BCCI bats for hybrid model, Team India won’t travel to Pakistan, say sources

New Delhi: Team India is unlikely to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy as the BCCI will propose a hybrid model to International Cricket Council (ICC), the sources told IANS.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has proposed that the ICC Champions Trophy will be scheduled from February 19 to March 9, 2025 with all the matches to take place across three major cities — Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore — refusing to opt for a hybrid model for India’s matches.

PCB has also proposed Lahore as base for Team India for the tournament including India vs Pakistan match to be played in the city due to the security reasons.

Last year, Pakistan had the hosting rights for the Asia Cup 2023 but the Indian government did not give approval to the team to travel and their matches were shifted to Sri Lanka.

The Indian cricket team has not played in Pakistan since the Asia Cup in 2008 and the two sides play each other only at ICC or ACC events.

In their last meeting in the T20 World Cup 2024 last month, India defeated Pakistan by six runs in the group stage and went on to lift their second title.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be the first major international cricket tournament hosted solely by Pakistan. Previously, Pakistan had co-hosted the 1996 Cricket World Cup with India and Sri Lanka and before that co-hosted the Reliance Cup with India in 1987.

–IANS