Team India given option to travel home after each Champions Trophy match in Pakistan: Report

In a bid to ensure India’s participation in the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan next year, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reportedly written to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), offering assistance in helping the Men in Blue return home after every match.

According to a report on Cricbuzz, the Indian team could return to either Chandigarh or national capital New Delhi after their matches, all of which will be taking place in Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium as per the PCB’s tentative schedule. This is if the Rohit Sharma-led side are not comfortable with the idea of staying in Pakistan.

Read | ECB's top officials say holding Champions Trophy in Pakistan without India not viable

The PCB added that the nearly week-long gap between India’s last two group-stage matches should make the job of facilitating their travel back home a lot easier.

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The development comes during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan capital Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit. As per the report, the issue of India’s participation in the Champions Trophy was brought up during talks between Jaishankar and Ishaq Dar, his Pakistani counterpart.

PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who also serves as the Interior Minister of Pakistan and remains confident the ICC event will take place entirely in the country next year, is believed to have joined in during the conversation.

Read | 'Indian team should come': Pakistan cricket head Mohsin Naqvi on Champions Trophy

The BCCI, however, is yet to officially make a decision on sending the Indian team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, which returns to action after an eight-year absence. The board has maintained it cannot send the Men in Blue to Pakistan without getting a security clearance from the Central Government.

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India had refused to travel to Pakistan for last year’s Asia Cup, which was supposed to be the first multi-team event taking place in Pakistan soil in nearly three decades. The tournament, as a result, was conducted in a ‘Hybrid’ model in which a majority of fixtures, including India’s matches as well as the final, were hosted in Sri Lanka.

PCB not willing to move final out of Lahore

There are reports that next year’s Champions Trophy, which will take place in the months of February and March in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi, could meet a similar fate if India refuse to travel to Pakistan. The ICC is believed to be mulling the idea of moving the tournament out of Pakistan altogether, with UAE, South Africa and Sri Lanka among host nations in the fray.

Despite offering to help India travel back home after each game, the PCB are “mentally prepared” for the news of India refusing to visit their neighbours to the West. However, they are not willing to move the final, which takes place on 9 March as per PCB’s schedule, out of Lahore even if the tournament meets a similar fate as the 2023 Asia Cup and takes place in a ‘Hybrid’ model.

Read | ‘It is disappointing’: PCB slams reports of possible rescheduling of 2025 ICC Champions Trophy

“The PCB’s first choice and priority is to host entire Champions Trophy in Pakistan and they are counting on this but internally the Board is also mentally prepared to hear about the Indian government not allowing its team to play in Pakistan and India’s matches being held in UAE,” a PCB source was quoted as saying according to PTI.

“But the PCB has decided even in the event of India not playing in Pakistan they want the final to be held in Lahore. Even if India qualifies for the final the PCB wants the ICC to hold the match at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore,” the source said.

Pakistan are the current title holders of the Champions Trophy, having thrashed arch-rivals India by 180 runs in the final of the 2017 edition at The Oval in London. Next year’s event, if it goes ahead as planned, will be the first ICC event taking place since the 1996 World Cup, in which the final had taken place at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.