• Source:PTI
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Champions Trophy 2025: Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood believes India will not travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy early next year.

"They are very very slim chances they will agree to play in Pakistan," Mahmood, who is a retired senior bureaucrat, said.

He, however, said that if India doesn't visit Pakistan, it would be a non-profitable deal for PCB and the ICC.

"India is the richest cricket board and carries a lot of clout. If they don't send their team to Pakistan I foresee even countries like Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh following their path," Mahmood said.

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"This would basically reduce the Champions Trophy into a venture where revenues will take a hit, expenses will grow and profits would fall," Mahmood, who twice went to India in 1989 and 1999 as Pakistan's junior and senior team manager, said.

Mahmood said that PCB should just follow their policy of not mixing sports and politics.

"Look the thing is at this level you can only lobby and try to convince other boards to be on your side. India has too much clout in the ICC it would do no good for Pakistan to adopt a tit-for-tat strategy."

"The thing is when the BCCI says it can't send its team and will play its matches outside Pakistan, it does reduce the purpose for Pakistan of hosting an ICC event," he added.

Earlier it was reported that the current PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi expressed the board's stand on hosting the marquee event and stated that it's ICC's responsibility to ensure India travels to Pakistan.

"PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has made it clear to the ICC that Pakistan will host the 2025 Champions Trophy, and there will be no hybrid model. It's ICC's responsibility to bring India to Pakistan for the event, and not PCB's task," said a report from the Pakistani media house Express-News.

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Amid all the speculations, the top cricket boards including the BCCI and BCCI will meet in Colombo for an ICC meeting from July 19-22 and the Champions Trophy's fate is likely to be decided there.

The Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held from February 19 to March 9 next year.