Champions Trophy 2025: Controversy ignites as no Indian flag at National Stadium in Karachi, PCB clears its stance on the same

Just a few days ahead of the start of the ICC Champions 2025 in Pakistan and UAE, a new controversy on social media has been ignited after a recent video went viral. In the viral video, it can be seen that the hosts have hoisted the flags of all participating countries at the National Stadium in Karachi except for the Indian flag.

After noticing the absence of the Indian flag among the flags of participating teams in the tournament, a lot of speculations took centre stage among fans from both India and Pakistan.

Besides that, the flag of another South Asian cricket team, Bangladesh was also missing from the flags of the participating teams at all the hosting venues for the Champions Trophy 2025.

However, in the same line of events, a PCB source clarified the stance of the host cricket board during a conversation with IANS.

Here’s the video of ‘Indian flag missing’ at the hosting venues:

No Indian flag in Karachi: As only the Indian team faced security issues in Pakistan and refused to play Champions Trophy matches in Pakistan, the PCB removed the Indian flag from the Karachi stadium while keeping the flags of the other guest playing nations.

- Absolute Cinema,… pic.twitter.com/2zmcATn7iQ

— Nawaz 🇵🇰 (@Rnawaz31888) February 16, 2025

“As you know, India is not coming to Pakistan to play its matches during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025; the National Stadium in Karachi, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium and the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore have hoisted flags of countries that are going to play at the said venues,” said the PCB source to IANS.

Furthermore, the PCB source also cleared the air over the question of not hoisting the flag of Bangladesh with a statement that they have not yet arrived in Pakistan and will be playing their campaign opener against India in Dubai. 

“The Indian team is going to play its matches in Dubai. Secondly, the Bangladesh team has not yet arrived in Pakistan and will be playing its first match against India in Dubai. Therefore, their flags have not been hoisted and the other nations, who have arrived here and will be playing in Pakistan... their flags are there at the stadium,” the source added later.

The ninth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be jointly hosted by Pakistan and UAE as the Indian team will be playing all of its matches in Dubai. The tournament will kick off with the tournament opener on February 19 at the National Stadium in Karachi. In the inaugural game of the tournament, the hosts and defending champions Pakistan will take on New Zealand.