The International Cricket Council has said on Monday that it believes that teams, including India, will travel to Pakistan for Champions Trophy 2025. The ICC last week gave the hosting rights of the 2025 Champions Trophy to Pakistan and it will be the return of a major cricketing event to the country after more than two decades as well.
The last time Pakistan hosted an ICC event was when it co-hosted the 1996 World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka. And, they didn’t host many international games since the 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore as players are afraid to travel there as well.
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“The answer is, from what we can see so far, absolutely (teams will travel),” ICC chair Greg Barclay said on Monday. “ICC cricket event is coming back to Pakistan after many years. All of it with the exception of what happened in the last few weeks has gone ahead without any any issues at all,” further added Barclay, who was joined by ICC CEO Geoff Allardice.
In September, Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja slammed after England and New Zealand pulled out of their series due to security concerns. However, England will play 7 T20Is in Pakistan in 2022 while Australia will tour the country too. Barclay also added that the ICC wouldn’t have given the hosting rights to Pakistan if it wasn’t sure as well.
“So, we wouldn’t have awarded the event if we didn’t think the Pakistan were capable of hosting it. We think it’s an exciting opportunity, a prospect for them to be able to host a world’s event for the first time for a period of quite a period of time. It’s not until 2025 and I’m sure that they will, as all countries are required to do, put together the appropriate security plans and assurances to ensure that they can been as delivered. So yes, we were comfortable and confident that we’ll go ahead,” Greg Barclay further added.
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Meanwhile, India’s participation in the tournament remains a doubt as no bilateral series has been played between India and Pakistan since 2012 due to political tensions after terror attacks in India. However, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur last week has said that the call will be taken over India’s participation in the Champions Trophy when the time comes as there are still security issues in Pakistan.
Greg Barclay, although acknowledged that it will be a challenging issue, he hoped cricket will improve the relations between the two neighbouring countries. “We know that it is particularly challenging issue to work through. I mean, from my point of view, I can’t control geopolitical forces are working on what we do. But I just hope that cricket can be forced to perhaps help improve relationships between them. One of the great things that sport can do is to help to bring people in nations together. So, if we can do something and in a small way to contribute to that, then that’s fantastic,” he added.
