The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has chosen the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a impartial venue to host India’s video games at subsequent yr’s ICC Champions Trophy following a standoff between the 2 rivals.
India had refused to journey to match host Pakistan for the eight-team Champions Trophy, amid its safety considerations.
Beneath a hybrid mannequin, the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed on Thursday that each one of India’s video games will likely be at a impartial venue, together with if the workforce reaches the semifinals and ultimate.
“UAE was finalized because the venue after PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi met with the Emirates Cricket Board chairman Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan,” PCB spokesman Amir Mir stated in an announcement on Sunday.
Mir stated the PCB has “knowledgeable the ICC” concerning the choice. The PCB assertion didn’t verify the place the video games would happen within the UAE, with Dubai thought of the likeliest venue.
Pakistan won’t play in India in ICC occasions within the 2024-27 cycle. Pakistan can even go to a impartial venue when India hosts the 2025 Ladies’s World Cup and co-hosts the 2026 males’s T20 World Cup with Sri Lanka.
India has three group-stage video games within the 2025 Champions Trophy, together with one in opposition to Pakistan. Relying on India’s progress on the match, the UAE can even host one of many semifinals and the ultimate.
The most recent assertion paves the best way for the ICC to announce the schedule of the February-March match within the coming days.
Political tensions between Pakistan and India have prevented their groups from touring one another’s nation since 2012, when Pakistan went to India for a bilateral one-day worldwide sequence.
Each groups face one another commonly in ICC tournaments — Pakistan went to India final yr for the lads’s World Cup. However earlier than the World Cup, India refused to journey to Pakistan for the Asia Cup and performed all of its video games in Sri Lanka.