Finally, after much speculation and talks, the ICC has concluded that the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be held under a hybrid model under which India will not travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy.
Rather, as per reports, India is scheduled to play their matches in the tournament in a neutral venue among the 8 teams who will participate in the ICC tournament. However, with the PCB also not ready to budge an inch on their stand, the ICC has also permitted all of Pakistan’s matches scheduled to be played in India to be shifted to some neutral venue.
The ESPNcricinfo sources have seen the agreement, which awaits an ICC board vote, which states that every match scheduled between 2024-27 for India to be played in Pakistan will be shifted to a neutral venue while every Pakistan match to be held in India would also be shifted to a neutral venue. This agreement will include the Champions Trophy in 2025, the Women’s ODI World Cup, and also the Men’s T20I World Cup in 2026.
This treaty might be extended to the 2028 Women’s T20 World Cup, which will be the first tournament of the next cycle, which for now has been offered to Pakistan. The neutral venue has to be proposed by the tournament host and will be approved by ICC.
The previously held tournaments included a triangular series between India, Pakistan, and some other Asian nations, considering that the tournament is held at a neutral venue other than India and Pakistan. Previously Jay Shah, the new ICC Chairman, had said that he intends to shift more action towards Test cricket and move back to Tri-Series, which were previously considered highly engaging by fans.
The Champions Trophy, which will be held in February 2024, is scheduled for the 19th of February, the schedule for which is yet to be finalised once the neutral venue is proposed and approved by the ICC.
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