The Board of Control for Cricket in India has finally put to bed the unnecessary controversy generated by some hyper-jingoistic Indian media outlets, clarifying that the Indian team will adhere to the guidelines stipulated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the Champions Trophy, particularly concerning the official logo.
Effectively, the BCCI has confirmed that the Indian jersey will feature the official ICC logo, which includes Pakistan’s imprint.
“We will follow whatever are the ICC guidelines,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told Cricbuzz, striving to end the controversy over the Indian jersey and Champions Trophy logo. When pointed out that the official ICC logo has Pakistan beneath it, Saikia reiterated stating, “We will follow the ICC directive.”
Saikia’s assertion puts to rest motivated media reports that had quoted unnamed Indian cricket board “sources” as having confirmed that the BCCI had filed an objection to the official logo since the team will not be travelling to Pakistan.
Pakistan are the designated hosts of the Champions Trophy which will be played from February 19 to March 9. The Indian team, however, will play their games in Dubai.
The BCCI secretary is yet to come out with the Board’s position on whether Rohit Sharma will visit Pakistan for the opening ceremony, which is expected to be held in Karachi, which will host the inaugural game on February 19.
Pertinently, Cricbuzz further reports that while the ICC would not make any official comment, it has been given to understood that the world body has NOT received any request from the BCCI, either on the Indian jersey imprint or on the opening ceremony.
It bears noting that as per norm, participating teams follow the ICC guidelines in all global events. In fact, the ICC has to clear the kit of each competing team. All teams are obligated to send their playing/training kits to the ICC for approval.
The participating teams in the Champions Trophy in 2017 had England and Wales on their jerseys, and not just England. The Pakistan players wore the World Cup 2023 shirts with the event logo that mentioned India. In the logo for the ongoing ICC women’s U19 T20 World Cup, currently being played in Malaysia, the host’s name is mentioned. All the recent ICC Media releases carry a banner of the Champions Trophy that mentions Pakistan.
