LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board has written a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) putting 12 questions before it seeking clarification for the decision of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of not travelling to Pakistan for next year’s ICC Champions Trophy, a PCB official said on Tuesday.

“The PCB has responded to last week’s ICC letter seeking clarifications for the BCCI decision not to travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025,” PCB spokesperson Sami-ul-Hasan confirmed to Dawn on Tuesday.

However, the spokesman refused to disclose the content of the PCB letter, saying the matter was a top secret.

The ICC last week sent a letter to the PCB, just informing that the BCCI had refused to send their team to Pakistan for the said event, but the letter did not carry any reason behind the decision.

Sources told Dawn that 12 questions were put before the ICC and all of them sought the details of BCCI’s refusal to send their team to Pakistan, and not a single one was related to the schedule of the event or what would be the next way forward if India did not come to Pakistan.

The brewing situation looks alarming for world cricket, as in case India does not come to Pakistan which also stands firm on its stance that it would no longer accept a hybrid model — used for last year’s Asia Cup by Najam Sethi-led PCB when India was not willing to tour Pakistan — the scenario will become complex and may reach a very difficult point.

Interestingly, the ICC as the last option may cancel or postpone the elite eight-nation event which was last won by Pakistan in 2017 when Sarfaraz Ahmed-led Pakistan outplayed India by 180 runs in the final at The Oval.

The BCCI on its part is following the instructions of the Indian government by avoiding to send their national squad to Pakistan on political grounds.

During the past few months, there were strong chances of India’s refusal to visit Pakistan for the event but neither the BCCI nor the ICC bothered to clear the doubts on the subject until last week’s letter sent by the world governing body to the PCB.

Now time is running short as the tournament is all set to start from Feb 19. BCCI’s refusal has made things challenging for the game’s world governing body.

The ICC is naturally expected to suffer a significant financial loss in both the cases — if the PCB declines to accept the hybrid model or allow the ICC to shift the tournament from Pakistan in response to the BCCI decision of refusing to undertake the tour.

Though some Indian media outlets have also aired reports of late that the Champions Trophy is likely to be shifted to South Africa, as happened in 2009, sources confirmed that so far the South African cricket authorities had not received any such request from the ICC.

According to sources, the PCB is keen to know from the ICC the content of the letter it received from the BCCI.

“Yes, the PCB wants to know the reason behind BCCI’s refusal as it is very much important and it is our right to know that,” a PCB official said on the condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, sources said that the thorny issue was upsetting for the ICC which was now between the devil and deep blue sea.

Sources further revealed that the unnecessary delay in announcing the Champions Trophy schedule — primarily due to the ongoing deadlock due to India’s rigid stance — had forced ICC’s commercial partners to caution it for possible legal action.

According to the rules, the ICC has to announce the schedule before Nov 20, some 90 days before the start of the event (Feb 19).

If the ICC decides to hold the Champions Trophy without India’s participation, the governing body will suffer heavy financial losses and in case it shifts the event from Pakistan to some other country, the PCB may take legal action as without its consent the ICC cannot shift the competition.

It may be recalled that the ICC — following the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March 2009 — shifted that year’s Champions Trophy from Pakistan to South Africa without PCB’s consent.

In response, the PCB threatened to sue the ICC. However, both the bodies resolved the issue as the governing body paid $22 million to the PCB to avoid any legal proceedings.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024