Shahid Afridi, the former Pakistani cricketer, has supported the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to decline the hybrid model for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and stated that ICC should assert their authority over BCCI for their refusal to send India to Pakistan for the multi-team event.
Pakistan is slated to host the 8-team Champions Trophy in February-March next year. However, the BCCI has informed the ICC that the Indian team will not travel to Pakistan after the Indian government refused permission.
India has not traveled to Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup and post the Mumbai terror attacks the same year. The two sides have played one another in ICC and ACC events, with Pakistan coming to India for a bilateral series in 2012-13, the 2016 T20 World Cup, and the 2023 ICC World Cup.
The BCCI, instead, requested the ICC to keep their matches at a neutral venue, preferably UAE for the Champions Trophy 2025. The same arrangement was made when Pakistan hosted the Asia Cup last year and India played its matches in Sri Lanka.
According to The Indian Express, the ICC is eager to discuss the possibility of adapting the hybrid model for the Champions Trophy at its virtual board meeting on Friday, particularly in light of the Islamabad unrest, which forced the Sri Lanka Cricket Board to cancel their A team's tour of Pakistan.
However, the PCB is said to have instructed the ICC not to discuss the hybrid model at Friday's meeting.
“I can confirm that PCB has a few hours back told the ICC that a Hybrid Model is not acceptable to them. PCB had looked at the possibility of a Hybrid model on the condition that if India can’t play in Pakistan, then in the future there would be Hybrid models in all ICC events in India right until 2031 (ODI World Cup in India and Bangladesh) as Pakistan would not go and play in India,” PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi told PTI.
And now Shahid Afridi, who visited India for the 2016 T20 World Cup as Pakistan captain, has supported PCB in their stance against the hybrid model.
Afridi accused the BCCI of "intertwining politics with sports," putting international cricket in a "precarious" situation, and urged the ICC to exert authority during the Champions Trophy scheduling uncertainty.
Afridi further highlighted that since the 26/11 incident in 2008, following which India stopped all bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan, the latter toured India five times - including a bilateral series in 2012/13.
“By intertwining politics with sports, the BCCI has placed international cricket in a precarious position. Fully support the PCB's stance against the hybrid model - especially since Pakistan (despite security concerns) has toured India five times, including a bilateral white-ball series, post-26/11. It's time for the ICC and its Board of Directors to uphold fairness and assert their authority,” Afridi posted on X.
It remains to see what solution ICC and its board takes in the meeting on November 29.
