 "An Indian flag has been included at the National Stadium in Karachi, which will be hosting the opening game of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy on Wednesday, 19 February. Image credit: X/@_FaridKhan")
The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy has been in the news for controversial reasons more often than not in recent months, primarily due to India’s refusal to travel to host nation Pakistan due to security reasons as well as issues pertaining to renovation work at the three Pakistani venues ahead of the event.
The latest of those controversies was the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) choosing not to hoist the Indian flag at any of its venues , which some sections of the cricket community believed was in retaliation to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refusing to send the Indian team to Pakistan.
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The PCB, however, appears to have since quashed the issue before it can cause any further trouble with a post on social networking platform X stating that an Indian flag has been hoisted at the National Stadium in Karachi ahead of the opening game of the tournament, between Pakistan and New Zealand on Wednesday.
The post also adds that several Indian journalists have been granted Pakistani visas for the tournament.
Impact Shorts
View AllA PCB source had recently stated that India’s flags were not hoisted at any of the three venues in Pakistan as they will be playing all of their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai.
The source went on to explain that the venues were hoisting flags of the teams scheduled to play matches at that venue in the Champions Trophy instead of all the eight teams, which would explain by the Bangladeshi flag is absence in Lahore and Karachi is has been hoisted in Rawalpindi.
India will be playing all of their matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, including the semi-finals and the final if they make it to that stage. While the first semi-final is scheduled to take place in Dubai on 4 March, the venue for the final is yet to be decided and will only be announced after the conclusion of the group stage, or the semi-finals.
If India fail to make it that far, the final will be held at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, which was supposed to host it as per the original draft.