The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is scheduled to be hosted by Pakistan in which 8 teams are supposed to take part but India’s participation seems to be doubtful because of the strained political relations between India and Pakistan.
As per the reports, the BCCI has asked the ICC to shift India’s matches of the Champions Trophy 2025 to Dubai or Sri Lanka as it won’t get permission of sending the Indian team to Pakistan by the Government of India. In the Asia Cup 2023 which was hosted by Pakistan, India’s matches were shifted to Sri Lanka but this time, the Pakistan Cricket Board is not in the mood to let any match go outside Pakistan and it has threatened that if India doesn’t play in the Champions Trophy 2025, then Pakistan will boycott the T20 World Cup 2026 which will be hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
The PCB is going to take up this matter in the next ICC meeting which will take place in Colombo from 19 July to 22 July and it is being reported that the PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi will attend this meeting and won’t deviate from the position of Pakistan’s event in Pakistan.
Amidst all this, an old video of the former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh is going viral in which he is heard saying that safety of the Indian cricketers is of utmost importance and if they are not safe in Pakistan, then they won’t visit Pakistan.
Here is what Bhajji stated, “Agar humare players wahan par jaake safe nahi hain toh nahi bhejenge. Aap na khelo humare saath. Aapko khelna hai toh khelo warna mat khelo. Indian cricket can survive without Pakistan and if you guys can survive without Indian cricket then do it.” (If our players don’t feel safe in Pakistan, then they won’t travel to the country. If you don’t want to play against India, then don’t. Indian cricket can survive without Pakistan and if you guys can do it, then go ahead).
Watch the video:
Click here to watch this video directly on Instagram
The Champions Trophy tournament was last played in 2017 and it was won by Pakistan which defeated India in the finals. India hasn’t visited Pakistan since 2008 due to political tensions but Pakistan did visit India in 2023 for playing in the ODI World Cup and the last match that the cricket teams of both the nations played against each other was in the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2024 that was won by India.
Let’s see how things proceed further.
