The Pakistan Cricket Board has earmarked Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi as the three host venues for 2025 Champions Trophy, in the initial draft schedule of the tournament, sent recently to the ICC.
The Champions Trophy, which was last held in England in 2017, is expected to be held tentatively in February-March next year, even as the PCB hastens plans to upgrade venues that will host the first ICC event in the country in nearly 30 years.
Pakistan are defending champions having won what was thought to be the last edition of the Champions Trophy in 2017. But, in 2022, the ICC brought back the tournament in the new rights cycle (2023-27) and awarded the hosting rights of the 2025 edition to Pakistan.
The eight-team tournament is expected to be played over two weeks, though the exact dates are not known yet. The PCB finalised the venues and the schedule after an ICC sent a team to conduct recces, ESPNcricinfo reports.
For the present at least, the PCB maintains that the tournament will stay in the country, even as media speculation coming out of India has again raised the possibility of cricket’s financial power centre insisting that a ‘hybrid model’ be adopted, as was the case for last year’s ACC Men’s Asia Cup.
“We’ve sent the schedule for the matches in Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi said at a press conference in Lahore. “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.”
Discussions on the schedule will likely focus now on India’s presence at the event. India have not yet confirmed participation and there is speculation that the ICC could use the ‘hybrid model’ and hold the country’s matches at a neutral venue if the BCCI decides that the Indian team will not travel to Pakistan. The ICC has already made it clear that it will not ask any member nation to “defy government policy”.
The next official ICC meeting is the global body’s annual conference in July.
Aside from the political challenges there is also the not so small matter of the shoddy state of infrastructure at the three venues that the PCB has selected to host the tournament.
Naqvi also conceded at the press conference that the condition of all three proposed venues is currently sub-standard in terms of hosting international games of cricket.
“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.”
ESPNcricinfo further reports:
Pakistan last held an ICC event back in 1996, when they co-hosted the ODI World Cup with India and Sri Lanka. Since then, they’ve gone through two periods when security concerns have meant teams have been reluctant to tour: in the early 2000s when Australia, England and New Zealand didn’t tour 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. Pakistan were due to host the Champions Trophy in 2008 but that was postponed and moved to South Africa in 2009. They were also due to co-host the 2011 World Cup but had to pull out as a venue.
