Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi are the three venues proposed by the PCB in the initial draft of the Champions Trophy 2025 schedule, recently sent to the ICC. The tournament has been scheduled for mid-February as the PCB accelerates plans to upgrade the venues that will host the first ICC event in the country in almost 30 years.
The eight-team tournament is expected to be played over two weeks, although exact dates are not yet known. The PCB finalized the venues and schedule after an ICC sent a team to conduct surveys.
“We have sent the schedule of matches in Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy,” PCB president Mohsin Naqvi said at a press conference in Lahore. “The ICC security team came and we had a very good meeting. They discussed the arrangements here and we will also share with them the improvement plans for the stadium. We are continually in touch with the ICC. We are trying to ensure that we host a very good meeting. Good tournament in Pakistan.”
Discussions over the schedule will now likely focus on India’s presence at the event. ESPNcricinfo understands that the initial draft states that all games, including India’s, will be played in Pakistan.
Typically, once the host board submits the draft schedule, it goes through several iterations by various teams within the ICC, which then share it with the broadcaster and the other boards before the schedule is finalized. The ICC’s next official meeting will be the global body’s annual conference in July.
However, ultimately the fate of the Indian games will depend on the political climate between the two countries and whether or not the Indian government grants permission to the BCCI to allow its team to travel to Pakistan. Icy relations between the two governments have meant that India has not toured Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup. Last year, the PCB had to adopt a hybrid model when hosting the Asia Cup, in which some matches were played in Pakistan but all India’s matches and the final were held in Sri Lanka.
A month later, Pakistan traveled to India to play in the 50-over World Cup, but the decision of either country to play in the other is always a political decision.
Pakistan last held an ICC event in 1996, when it co-hosted the ODI World Cup with India and Sri Lanka. They have since gone through two periods where security concerns have made teams reluctant to tour: the early 2000s, when Australia, England and New Zealand did not tour due to attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent war in neighboring countries. Afghanistan; and from 2009 to 2015, when no team toured due to the terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lanka team. Pakistan was due to host the Champions Trophy in 2008 but it was postponed and moved to South Africa in 2009. It was also due to co-host the 2011 World Cup but had to withdraw as a host.
The Champions Trophy will be the centerpiece of a busy season at home for Pakistan. They will also host South Africa and New Zealand for an ODI tri-series just before the ICC event (and will begin the home season this year with visits from Bangladesh and England).
The scheduling crisis will also mean finding a suitable window that year for the PSL’s 10th season. January is an option after Pakistan’s return from a tour of South Africa, although that puts the league in a direct clash with the SA20, probably the ILT20, the BPL and the BBL. Scheduling the PSL after the Champions Trophy in March means playing it throughout Ramadan, a clash the PCB has generally tried to avoid as it affects attendance, schedules and commercial opportunities.
There will also be the challenge, as Naqvi acknowledged, of upgrading the stadiums in the three cities, stadiums that have not received major upgrades for several years.
“If you look at Gaddafi [stadium in Lahore]It’s good, but the viewing experience is not great for cricket. Maybe football, not cricket,” Naqvi said. “We need to improve the facilities in the stadiums, where there are some old problems. [The National Stadium in] Karachi is in bad shape. So on May 7th we will finalize offers from international companies that will come and help us design. We will also work with local consultants. We’re already late, but we need to make these updates in four or five months. “It will be a very tough test but we can overcome it.”