The ICC has since come out to clarify on the issue and announced that the next Champions Trophy cricket going to be held in 2025 will use a hybrid model in a bid to tackle issues to do with India’s and Pakistan’s hosting of each other’s countries.
According to the statement of ICC, the Indian team will have their games in the tournament at a ‘neutral’ ground. Similarly, Pakistan’s bilaterals in Indian hosted ICC events will be played at neutral venues during the ICC rights cycle 2024-2027 .
The Champions Trophy will be held in Feb and March 2025 in Pakistan. But in the event there was so much uncertainty as India could not afford to travel to Pakistan for security and diplomatic causes.
The hybrid model offers a way to achieve participation of both countries while not affording concessions to either side.
To be specific, the ICC laid down that this scheme holds good for many tournaments. Pakistan will not tour India for the Women’s ODI World Cup in 2025 and the Men’s T20 World Cup in 2026.
However, their matches in these tournaments will also be played in neutral grounds as will be described in the following topics. This decision sets the ground on which both cricketing rivalries from both nations play each other during world tournaments organized by ICC.
Pakistan has been given the honour to host the Women's T20 World Cup in 2028. According to such a model, neutral venue arrangements will come into force within the context of any match including the Indian team.
It is also planned that Cricket Australia will hold a graduation ICC women’s tournament in the 2029-2031 year, so in the coming years there will be quite a lot of international cricket.
To win the Champions Trophy in 2025 there will be eight teams participating namely Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh England India New Zealand South Africa, and Pakistan which will be the host of the Champions Trophy in 2025.
The tournament will be a chance to defend the right that Pakistan earned when they last emerged as the champions in 2017. RCT expects the ICC to release the full event schedule soon.
The hybrid model is a new paradigm in how the ICC responds to political rivalry between cricketing countries.
What helps to understand this is that the ICC has acted wisely, practically protecting the sovereignty of its tournaments while dealing with important diplomatic questions that prevent India and Pakistan from playing on the other’s territory.
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