There is no hope of India going to Pakistan to play Champions Trophy, BCCI can give this option to ICC

New Delhi: A few days ago, ever since the BCCI President announced the name of Rohit Sharma as the captain for the Champions Trophy and WTC Final, a confusion and question had arisen among the fans and media whether Will Team India go to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy next year? With Jai Shah’s announcement, one section accepted that this is an indirect announcement of BCCI to send the team to Pakistan, while the other section was adamant that India will not go to Pakistan to play the mega event. However, now the board sources have made it clear that India will not go to Pakistan to play the Champions Trophy. Besides, the Bharti Board has also placed two options before the ICC.

Indian Cricket team is unlikely to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. BCCI will ask ICC to host matches in Dubai or Sri Lanka: BCCI sources to ANI pic.twitter.com/o7INJKhk1E

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2024

According to the recently released schedule of Champions Trophy, India has been placed in Group A with Pakistan. And according to this, Team India has to play all its matches in Lahore. Pakistan got the hosting rights of the mega event in the year 2021. At that time the Men’s T20 World Cup was going on. A few months ago in April, there were reports that the proposed venues for the Champions Trophy were Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

BCCI can give this option

Now, as per ICC rules, India cannot withdraw from the global competition and it is necessary for it to play, in such a situation the board can ask the ICC to organize its matches in Dubai or Sri Lanka. The reason is clear that even if the board itself thinks something, the Modi government is not going to make any major changes in the foreign policy for the Champions Trophy. And the Indian government is going to maintain the same stand regarding the cricket team playing in Pakistan, which has been following since the UPA government.

India played for the last time this year

The Indian team played its last match in Pakistan in the year 2008. Only a year later, there was a deadly attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan, in which the players had a narrow escape. After this, no team came to play in Pakistan for a long time. Since 2015, every Test playing country except India and Ireland has played in Pakistan