PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi Confident That India Will Travel Pakistan Next Year For Champions Trophy

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi is confident that the Indian men’s cricket team will travel to Pakistan next year to take part in the ICC Champions Trophy. The 2025 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy is set to take place in Pakistan. The eight-team tournament will start on February 19, and the final is on March 9. Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi are scheduled to host the matches.

India hasn’t travelled to Pakistan since July 2008 due to tense political relations between the two countries, but PCB chief Naqvi is confident that India will end the long wait next year and travel to the neighbouring country for the ICC event.

While speaking to reporters in Lahore on Sunday, Naqvi, who was appointed as PCB chief earlier this year, said, “Indian team mujhe puri umeed hai… Abhi tak koi aisi cheej nahi hai jiski wajeh se vo postpone karey ya cancel karey. Toh sari teams aayengi (Team India will come to play the Champions Trophy in Pakistan next year. All teams will come).”

Pakistan hasn’t hosted any major ICC event since the 1996 ODI World Cup. It was scheduled to co-host the 2011 edition of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup, but after the Sri Lanka team was attacked by terrorists in 2009, Pakistan was stripped of the hosting rights, and the tournament was played in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

While India hasn’t travelled to Pakistan since July 2008, in the last 16 years, Pakistan has landed in India on three occasions. Pakistan travelled for the first time in December 2012 to take part in a three-match T20I series and play three ODI matches. And then in 2016, it travelled to India to participate in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Pakistan’s last tour of India was in 2023, when, under Babar Azam’s leadership, they took part in the 2023 ODI World Cup, which for the first time was played entirely in India.

Pakistan played two matches each in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, whereas the high-voltage match against India was staged at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14.