File image of Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam.© AFP
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is looking at three options regarding hosting of the next year’s ICC Champions Trophy, which is supposed to be held in Pakistan, as per sources. As per sources, the hosting rights for now stay with Pakistan. But ICC is still exploring some options for the tournament scheduled to start from February 2025. As per sources, ICC is either looking to have the tournament go ahead in Pakistan as planned, or take place in both Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a part of the hybrid model. As per this hybrid model, matches for India and knockout stage games will take place in Dubai.
The third option is the entire tournament taking place outside Pakistan, with Dubai, Sri Lanka or South Africa as possible hosts, added sources.
Pakistan has not hosted any major International Cricket Council (ICC) event since the 1996 ODI World Cup, which it co-hosted with India and Sri Lanka. It was supposed to co-host the 2011 edition of the tournament, but its rights were stripped after a terror attack on a touring Sri Lanka side’s bus back in 2009. The tournament was then played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
India has not travelled to Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup, but Pakistan has been to India on three occasions, for a white-ball series in late December 2012 to January 2013, the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup and the 2023 ODI World Cup, which was entirely hosted by India.
During the 2023 WC, Pakistan played two matches each in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata and the high-voltage match with arch-rivals India was played at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi stadium on October 14.
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