PCB: India will not travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Sunday that India will not travel to Pakistan for the eight-team Champions Trophy, scheduled to begin in February.

Strained political relations, historically tense, have prevented the two rivals from playing a bilateral series in over a decade, with India’s last visit to Pakistan being for the 2008 Asia Cup.

"The PCB has received an email from the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirming that the Indian board has informed them their team will not travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy," PCB spokesperson Sami Ul Hasan told AFP. Hasan noted that the PCB has forwarded this information to the Pakistani government for further guidance.

Pakistan is set to host the Champions Trophy in three cities—Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi—from February 19 to March 9, but India’s non-participation could delay the final schedule. PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi previously dismissed the possibility of a hybrid format, where India would have played all their matches in the UAE.

“Pakistan has extended many gestures of goodwill to India, but we want to be clear that India should not expect such gestures every time,” Naqvi said in Lahore on Saturday. He added that future decisions on Pakistan’s participation in events in India would be left to the Pakistani government.

The ICC had planned to release the Champions Trophy schedule this week, but the standoff may delay that announcement. The tournament is the most prestigious ODI event after the World Cup, featuring Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa, with Monday marking the 100-day countdown.

India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars since the 1947 partition, bring their rivalry to the cricket field, where their matches are among the most-watched events globally.

While Pakistan visited India for last year’s ODI World Cup, hoping the gesture would be reciprocated, they were forced to adopt a hybrid model for last year’s Asia Cup, with India playing in Sri Lanka instead. The two countries have only faced each other in ICC tournaments since their last bilateral series in the 2012-13 season.