Champions trophy impasse

We are now barely three months away from the ostensible start date of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy and the tournament’s schedule is still yet to be announced. What is the hold up? That would be the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s stubborn refusal to play in Pakistan for seemingly no good reason at all. The ICC has officially demanded a written explanation from the BCCI over its refusal after the PCB requested the ICC to provide a copy of India’s written response regarding the decision against attending the mega-event. The Indian cricket board had previously verbally communicated its decision against its participation to the international cricketing body. Since the PCB also remains adamant in its refusal to accept a hybrid model for the upcoming tournament, as it should, the whole event now seems to be at an impasse. Compounding these problems is the refusal of broadcasters and commercial partners to accept a schedule that does not feature a Pakistan-India match. This too is pretty reasonable. Broadcasters appear to have paid around $3.2 billion for the rights to the tournament and the ICC is also anticipating up to $1 billion from other sources in revenue. Hence, both broadcasters and other commercial participants have every right to expect that cricket’s most lucrative and big ticket game will indeed take place.

This leaves India and the BCCI as the odd party out. And yet, the man currently leading this body, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, is set to become the ICC Chairman on December 1. Right now, one can only speculate as to what impact that will have on the course the ICC Champions Trophy takes. It might even have no impact at all as the ICC is scrambling to find a solution to the problem before the BCCI secretary takes charge. However, it is reasonable to argue that this is a foreboding development for Pakistan cricket and its fans. India has not shied away, to say the least, from throwing around its financial weight in order to get its way in the cricketing world. This appears to be the case even if it means bringing politics into sports, compromising principles of fairness and even jeapordising the financial stability and popularity of cricket itself.

Security can be no excuse for refusing to visit. While Pakistan does indeed have security problems, both England and Bangladesh have recently played test series in Pakistan without any issues and nearly every major cricket team has visited Pakistan in recent years, apart from India, without a hitch. India’s divisive behavior is not limited to the upcoming tournament alone, with the Indian blind cricket team having withdrawn from the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024, also scheduled to be held in Pakistan, after its Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denied permission to cross the border. Who gains from this? Certainly not the sport or fans on both sides of the border. Nor does any of this do Indian cricketers and Indian cricket in general any favours. It appears that the importance of political point-scoring in the ‘world’s largest democracy’ is so great that holding an entire tournament hostage has become fair game.