Pakistan Cricket Board proposes three venues for 2025 Champions Trophy

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has proposed Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi as the three venues for the 2025 Champions Trophy, as per the initial draft schedule sent to the ICC. The tournament has been pencilled for a mid-February window as PCB rush plans to upgrade venues that will host an ICC event for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Defending champions Pakistan won the tournament in 2017, believed to be the last edition of the competition. But, ICC brought back the tournament in 2022 and awarded the hosting rights of the 2025 edition to Pakistan.

The eight-team tournament is slated to be played over two weeks, though the exact dates are not clear. PCB finalised the venues and the preliminary schedule after an ICC team’s visit.

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“We’ve sent the schedule for the matches in Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi said at a press conference. “The ICC’s security team came and we had a very good meeting. They looked at arrangements here and we’ll also share stadium upgrade plans with them. We’re continuously in touch with the ICC. We are trying to ensure we host a very good tournament in Pakistan.”

The key aspect of the tournament will be whether powerhouses India travel to Pakistan. As per a report, the initial draft has all games, including India’s, being played in Pakistan.

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In a normal scenario, once the host board sends in the draft schedule, it undergoes various iterations by teams involved in the ICC, which then shares it with the broadcaster and other boards before the schedule is finalised. An attempt to that end may be taken up at the next official ICC meeting in July.

Fate of India’s games in Pakistan will hinge on the political climate between the two countries and whether the Indian government grants permission to the BCCI to let its team travel to the neighbours. Tense relations between the two countries has meant India have not toured Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup. Last year, PCB was forced into adopting a hybrid model for the Asia Cup, whereby some games were played in Pakistan but all of India’s games, and the final, were played in Sri Lanka.

Pakistan did travel a month later to India to play in the 50-over World Cup but the decision for either country to play in the other is based on politics at the time.

The last time Pakistan hosted an ICC event was the 1996 ODI World Cup, alongside India and Sri Lanka. Since then, they’ve gone through periods of security concerns where teams have been reluctant to tour: in the early 2000s when Australia, England and New Zealand didn’t because of the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war in neighbouring Afghanistan; and from 2009 to 2015 when no teams toured because of the terror attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team. The 2008 Champions Trophy, due to be played in Pakistan, was postponed and moved to South Africa a year later. They were also planned to co-host the 2011 World Cup with India but had to pull out.

The 2025 Champions Trophy will be the centrepiece of a busy home season for the Pakistan cricket team. They are scheduled to host South Africa and New Zealand for an ODI tri-series before the ICC event.

Naqvi acknowledged there will be a challenge in improving the stadiums in the three cities, which have not had serious upgrades for a number of years now.

“If you look at Gaddafi [stadium in Lahore], it is good, but the viewing experience is not great for cricket. Football maybe, not cricket,” Naqvi said. “We need to improve facilities in the stadiums, where there are some old problems. [The National Stadium in] Karachi is in bad shape. So on May 7th, we’ll finalise bids from international companies who will come and help us design. We will work with local consultants as well. We are already late but we need to do these upgrades in four-five months. It will be a very tough test but we can do it.”