 "No BCCI-PCB dialogue at ICC Annual Conference on India's participation in 2025 Champions Trophy")
The drama surrounding India’s participation in next year’s ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan is yet to be resolved with no dialogue taking place between the boards of the two nations at the ICC Annual Conference in Sri Lanka on Monday.
The ODI event dubbed the ‘Mini World Cup’ is set to return after an eight-year gap in February-March 2025, and will be taking place in the backyard of defending champions Pakistan, who had defeated India to win their maiden title in 2017.
While none of the other participating nations have raised an objection to the tournament taking place in Pakistan, the BCCI is yet to confirm whether the Indian team will be traveling to their neighbouring country for the first time in 16 years.
Since it was not on the agenda, officials representing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did not bring the matter up in the four-day Annual Conference that concluded in Colombo on Monday.
“It wasn’t on the agenda so it wasn’t brought up or discussed during the Annual General Meeting,” an official was quoted as saying according to a report on News18 Cricketnext.
Read | 'Very slim chances India will agree to play in Pakistan': Ex-PCB chairman
A senior BCCI official who was at the meeting added that the Champions Trophy is still some time away and that the ICC “will handle it”.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“It isn’t a bilateral where two boards will hold discussions. No dialogue happened between us and PCB on the Champions Trophy. Since it wasn’t on any of the agendas, it wasn’t discussed during the AGM too. It is still time away and ICC will handle it,” the BCCI official was quoted as saying in the report.
The Indian team has not travelled to Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup, in which the Men in Blue lost the final against Sri Lanka in Karachi. The terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai in November 2008 would lead to Indo-Pak relations nosediving to an all-time low, with Pakistani cricketers subsequently getting banned from the Indian Premier League.
Read | Pakistan will host Champions Trophy despite India’s reluctance to travel: Mohsin Naqvi
The Pakistan team would visit India for a three-match ODI series in 2012-13, winning it 2-1. It would remain the last the time the two arch-rivals faced each other in a bilateral series, with their subsequent meetings limited to ICC and ACC events.
The BCCI cites denial of permission from the Central Government as the reason for not sending the Indian team to Pakistan.
PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi, however, recently stated that the BCCI will have to submit written proof to the ICC in case they give a similar reason for not sending the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team for next year’s Champions Trophy, which will be the first global event taking place in Pakistan since it co-hosted the 1996 World Cup with India and Sri Lanka.
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