On Friday, March 15, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that Pakistan will host an ODI tri-series involving the South Africa National Cricket Team and the New Zealand National Cricket Team just before the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy .
The hosting rights of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy are with Pakistan and the country will host the competition in February-March 2025. The tournament consists of 8 teams and the qualification was decided based on the teams’ performance in Men’s Cricket ICC. World Cup 2023 in India. Pakistan is currently the defending champions of the Champions Trophy, having won the last edition in 2017.
Although Pakistan has hosting rights, there is a strong possibility of the competition being played in a hybrid model like Asia Cup 2023 as the Indian government is unlikely to send Team India to the country for the tournament, according to reports . Notably, PCB also hosted the Asia Cup 2023 but the tournament was played in a hybrid model in Pakistan and Sri Lanka after the BCCI denied sending the Men in Blue to Pakistan.
Coming back to the tri-series, the newly appointed Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) president Mohsin Naqvi recently met Cricket South Africa (CSA) president Mr. Lawson Naidoo and the president of New Zealand Cricket (NZC), Mr. Roger. Twose will have several discussions, one of which will be the tri-series before the Champions Trophy, which would provide the teams with an adequate amount of practice before the main tournament.
The Tri-series was concluded and welcomed by the host and both member boards: Pakistan Cricket Board
In an official press release, PCB stated that Cricket South Africa (CSA) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) welcomed the proposal for the tri-series in February 2025.
“The agenda of the meeting included the ODI Tri-series between Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa, to be held in February 2025 in Pakistan, just before the ICC Champions Trophy. The Tri-series was concluded and welcomed by the host and both boards of directors. The PCB Chairman also extended an invitation to Mr. Roger Twose and Mr. Lawson Naidoo to visit Pakistan,” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in an official press release.
Notably, this will be after a two-decade wait for Pakistan to host a tri-series. The last time they organized a tri-series was in October 2004 involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
“The Tri-series between Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand will be an exciting event and after a long time Pakistan will be hosting such a tournament. I would like to thank the directors of NZC and CSA for agreeing to participate in the Tri-series. The PCB is also looking forward to hosting the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which will be a great pleasure for Pakistan to host the top eight ODI teams on its soil,” said PCB President Mohsin Naqvi.
Meanwhile, the teams that will compete in the Champions Trophy are hosts Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, India, England, Bangladesh, Australia and Afghanistan.
The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will follow the same format as previous seasons as teams will be divided into two groups of four each and the top two teams from each group will enter the semi-finals before the semi-final winners face each other. Yeah. another in the sumwith shock.