Is Cricket the Winner in Indo-Pak Champions Trophy Row?

With Pakistan agreeing to host the 2025 Champions Trophy in hybrid mode, allowing the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team to play their matches out of the Islamic country, cricket has come out to be the winner, a former Indian cricketer has said.

The eight-team International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy is one of the most prestigious events. The new template of the tournament will see India playing all of its matches in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the ICC announced on Thursday evening.

Under the terms of the agreement, other than India's fixtures, one semifinal and the title clash of the competition will be played in Dubai in case the Indian team qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament.

"India's acceptance of holding Pakistan's matches in ICC events at neutral venues shows that Pakistan was playing politics on the issue of the Champions Trophy, not India. Interestingly, the security of Pakistani cricketers isn't an issue in India as we have seen from India's successful hosting of the ICC Men's ODI [One Day International] World Cup last year where the Pakistani cricket team led by Babar Azam participated and even received a warm welcome in Hyderabad," ex-Indian spinner Gopal Sharma, who played for the national side from 1985 to 1990 told Sputnik India.

Furthermore, acts of terror in India barring Kashmir have been negligible in the past decade, whereas Pakistan has been threatened by a number of militant attacks on its soil, he added. Nonetheless, cricket is clearly a winner with the Champions Trophy now being played under a hybrid agreement. After all, fans from both sides want to see their cricketers taking on each other in a global tournament like this, he underlined.

Unlike the Pakistani government and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shown maturity in handling the whole situation, as reflected in its decision to host Pakistan's matches in ICC tournaments outside India, Sharma emphasised.

Previously, the tournament had become the subject of a long-drawn saga between the sport's administrative bodies in India and Pakistan.

Notably, Pakistan is the official host of the elite tournament, but the BCCI refused to send the Indian Cricket Team to the neighbouring country, citing security concerns.

On the other hand, officials in Pakistan suggested that India's hesitation to allow its cricketers to visit Pakistan was nothing but a political decision, given the strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.

But India's 1983 World Cup winner Madan Lal dismissed Pakistan's assumptions, asserting that India's choice not to visit Pakistan for the forthcoming Champions Trophy tournament was primarily driven by security reasons.

Pakistan has experienced a number of security challenges in recent years, including incidents in major cities like Karachi, where matches of the elite competition are scheduled to be held. Given these concerns, it raises questions about the ability to guarantee the same level of security for the Indian Cricket Team, Lal stressed in a conversation with Sputnik India.

It is understandable why the Indian team would be reluctant to play cricket in Pakistan, especially considering the ongoing tensions at the border, he added. However, playing at a neutral venue offers a different perspective, the former Indian all-rounder pointed out.

"On top of that, the lack of cricket between India and Pakistan hasn't affected our cricketers at all. Our players are making more money by playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) than what the Pakistanis earn in a year. Also, Indian cricketers don't think too much about personal relations because for us the nation comes first," he emphasised.

Meanwhile, India's move not to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy is influenced by broader geopolitical tensions between the two countries, Dr Ajay Darshan Behera, a professor at the MMAJ Academy of International Studies at the Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, believes.

"It was a political move, but recent incidents, especially the violence that erupted after thousands of supporters of Imran Khan, a cricket hero-turned-ex-premier, thronged Islamabad, could have played a role in India's decision," Behera stressed in a conversation with Sputnik India.

Yet, as the saying goes, all's well that ends well, he added. With both India and Pakistan honoring their commitments in talks with the ICC, it seems that both the PCB and BCCI are content with the arrangement, Behera concluded.

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