Two more countries set to boycott Pakistan for Champions Trophy 2025: Reports

Leading Indian newspaper Dainik Jagran has reported that Champions Trophy 2025 could be shifted out of Pakistan. According to reports doing the rounds, Australia and England will also boycott touring Pakistan if India refuses to travel. 

According to reports in Dainik Jagran in such a scenario the entire tournament could be moved to either Sri Lanka or the United Arab Emirates. This could be a huge blow for Pakistan who haven’t hosted an ICC event for nearly three decades. 

The BCCI has already spoken about its reservations of playing the tournament in Pakistan due to security issues. It was reported that BCCI was set to give its nod to an Hybrid model. As per the original schedule, all of India’s matches were set to be held in Lahore including the huge match versus Pakistan on 1st March. 

Pakistan’s hopes of hosting Champions Trophy in trouble

BCCI was one of the first cricket boards to show their reservations regarding touring Pakistan. There were massive hopes in Pakistan that ICC could convince BCCI to take their first tour for 16 years. 

The latest development according to Dainik Jagran is that Cricket Australia and England Cricket Board will toe the line that BCCI adopts. In such a scenario one cannot expect the tournament to go ahead in Pakistan since the ‘Big Three’ of cricket will have a major say. 

Asia Cup 2023 was mostly held in Sri Lanka after India had decided against touring Pakistan. Only a handful of games were held in Pakistan with all of India’s matches including the finals being held in Sri Lanka. 

Meanwhile, Indian all-rounder Axar Patel spoke about his feelings during the T20 World Cup final. The 30-year-old during his chat with the Indian Express said “I got out at the wrong time. It was my mistake. I was not alert. I was angry with myself. I was hitting the ball well, and also, Virat bhai was also set at the other end. We were planning to accelerate. We could have added more runs for sure. For three overs, I was sitting alone then Bumrah came and gave me a tap on my shoulder and said, ‘You have to bowl four overs. You have given us momentum. Let it go now',"

 

Axar Patel also said “For the first five seconds Yes, I thought it was over. I was down but I had that intuition that we might turn it around. Rohit bhai came to me and told me ‘match khatam nahi hua hai (Match is not over yet).’ In the bilateral series when you get hit, you immediately let your shoulders down, and your body language shows that you have given up. But in that match, none of us were ready to give up. We wanted to take it to the final ball of the 20th over”