Host of the ‘hybrid’ 2025 Champions Trophy, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has officially communicated to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that their neutral venue of choice for India’s matches will be the United Arab Emirates, according to a Cricbuzz report.
“The PCB has chosen the UAE as the neutral venue and the PCB has formally informed the ICC about the decision. Now, India and Pakistan’s Champions Trophy matches will be held in the UAE,” a spokesman for the PCB said, as quoted by the website.
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PCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, and Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) chairman, Sheikh Mubarak Al Nahyan, had a meeting to finalize their decision.
The ICC board rules that the host board reserves the rights to choose the neutral venue for a global event, which effectively means Dubai will be the venue for India’s matches, including the crowd-puller against Pakistan that is likely to be held on February 23. However, the tournament fixtures are yet to be officially announced.
UAE also has two other stadiums in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, but the stadium in Dubai is the largest.
The report adds that the PCB also mulled over Sri Lanka as an option before deciding in favour of the UAE.
The deadlock over the hosting model of the February 19 to March 9 Champions Trophy next year was broken on December 19 after an agreement between the ICC, PCB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the basis that India-Pakistan matches in global events will be played at neutral venues till 2027.
“This will apply to the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 (Pakistan), ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 (India) and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 (India and Sri Lanka),” the ICC had said in its statement.
The standoff had begun after the BCCI told the ICC that the Indian team won’t travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy.
