Courtesy: ICC/X
On Thursday, November 14, the International Cricket Council (ICC) sent the Champions Trophy 2025 silverware to Pakistan for an official tour amidst scheduling uncertainties. The trophy arrived in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan before it will be taken to many different places in the country from November 16 to 24, including the K2, the second tallest mountain in the world, but it won’t be arriving to three designated venues in Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi.
Some of the venues where the Champions Trophy official tour will take place includes names like Skardu, Muzaffarabad, Murree, and Hunza, among others in Pakistan, as per the report from Cricbuzz. The reason for the silverware not making its way to the three designated venues of the tournament in 2025 is due to the prevailing smog in these cities, while the PCB and Pakistan government are looking to promote tourism in far away areas in the country.
India have refused to travel to Pakistan to play ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Moreover, as far as the scheduling of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is concerned, there is no progress being made after India refused to travel to Pakistan to play in it. Since then, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have seeked clarifications from the ICC about the stance of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), while they are overtly looking to reject the proposed hybrid model to host the tournament, wherein India would play all their matches elsewhere.
The ICC are currently looking to work out the best possible option to get all the stakeholders onboard, to host the eight-team tournament in early 2025. There is a sense of optimism as far as all the stakeholders eventually joining hands, which would mean that the schedule of the 15-match ICC Champions Trophy will be announced very soon, with both India and Pakistan, the previous two champions, featuring in it.
