'India Will Come To Pakistan For Champions Trophy'

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi is confident that the Indian team will travel to Pakistan for next year's ICC Champions Trophy.

'Indian team mujhe puri umeed hai. Abhi tak koi aisi cheej nahi hai jiski wajeh se vo postpone karey ya cancel karey. Toh sari teams aayengi (I am confident that the Indian team will come to Pakistan. Till now there has been no incident which might force the postponement or cancellation of the Champions Trophy, so all the teams will definitely come),' Naqvi said during a media interaction in Lahore.

The BCCI has not yet confirmed India's participation in the Champions Trophy, which is slated to be held in Pakistan in February-March.

BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla said last week India's participation in the Champions Trophy will depend on government approval.

'No decision has been taken. But our policy is that for international tours, we always seek the permission of the government. It's up to the government to decide whether our team should go to any country or our team should not go to any country,' Shukla had said in Kanpur on September 30, 2024.

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India and Pakistan only play each other at ICC events. India have not travelled to Pakistan for bilateral cricket since 2008 following the Mumbai terror attacks in which over 150 people were killed.

It is believed that India will not travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. The BCCI may request the ICC to pull the tournament out of Pakistan and host it either in Sri Lanka or Dubai.

Last year's Asia Cup, hosted by Pakistan, was played as per a hybrid model allowing India to play all its matches in Sri Lanka. As a result, the island nation hosted nine games while Pakistan hosted the remaining four matches.

Pakistan has not hosted any major ICC event since the 1996 World Cup, which was co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka. They were also scheduled to co-host the 2011 World Cup but following the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009, they were stripped of the hosting rights.

Pakistan has travelled to India three times for a limited overs series in 2012-2013, for the T20 World Cup in 2016 and the ODI World Cup last year when they played matches in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.