LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) stands firm on its stance of hosting all of Champions Trophy 2025 matches in the country despite rumours of a neutral venue or plan B, sources told Geo News on Sunday.
Pakistan is set to host the 2025 Champions Trophy and recently, the rumours of a "plan B" and "neutral venue" started to emerge in the news, wherein it was reported that the Indian cricket team will not travel to Pakistan and play their matches on a neutral venue.
However, the PCB strongly believes that since the event is of Pakistan, it should be completely staged in Pakistan. The International Cricket Council's (ICC) annual meeting is scheduled in Colombo from July 19 to 22 and the PCB delegation will go there with a strong stance of hosting all the matches in the country.
Three venues — Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore — will host the matches of eight matches and according to PCB's proposed schedule to ICC, all of India's matches will take place in Lahore.
The PCB also allocated Rs12.80 billion for upgradation of three stadiums. Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, Karachi's National Bank Cricket Arena and Rawalpindi International Cricket Stadium will be elevated ahead of the marquee event.
Except India, all eight teams that will participate in the Champions Trophy have already played in Pakistan and the PCB believes that India does not have a strong reason not to come here.
If India decides not to travel for the Champions Trophy, then Pakistan will not go to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup which the Blues will co-host with Sri Lanka.
The proposed dates for the Champions Trophy are from 19th February to 9th March.
This event will mark the return of the ICC Champions Trophy after an eight-year hiatus, with its last occurrence in 2017, when Pakistan emerged victorious by defeating India in the final.
Sohail Imran Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.
