The suspense of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 has been lengthened as the ICC board meeting on November 29, 2024, was adjourned without any conclusion. It has been reported that the ICC board has given the hosts Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) some more time to find a solution with BCCI.

Any resolution is expected to occur over the next 24-48 hours. The decision to get the main stakeholders together to work on a solution came after a brief ICC Board meeting on Friday.

A PCB staff, led by chairman Mohsin Naqvi, attended the conference in Dubai, even though most boards participated via online call.

A few other member boards will now meet with ICC leadership, the PCB, and the BCCI to hash out an agreement that is acceptable to all sides.

Naqvi has stated publicly that he is willing to discuss any concerns the BCCI may have about flying to Pakistan with him, an opportunity that he has now been offered.

In all likelihood, any proposal will have to go through the governments of both India and Pakistan before being presented to the ICC Board for approval; India was denied permission to travel to Pakistan by the Indian government, and the PCB has repeatedly stated that any action they take must be approved by their own government.

There were three options on ICC’s agenda for the board meeting:

1. The hybrid option, where the majority of the matches are in Pakistan but those involving India are played outside Pakistan

2 . The tournament is played entirely outside Pakistan, with the PCB retaining hosting rights

 3.The entire event is played in Pakistan but without India

On Thursday morning, Naqvi did not explicitly rule out a hybrid model, as he had in the past, but instead stated that any choice must be approved by the Pakistan government and be in the best interests of Pakistan.

The event is scheduled to begin in fewer than 90 days, on February 19. Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi have agreed to host the games, but if a hybrid option is chosen, another venue outside of Pakistan will be used.

Since the BCCI was denied permission by the Indian government to travel to Pakistan, the PCB has been demanding detailed answers as to why India is unable to travel, as well as when and how the BCCI informed the ICC.  

They have also demanded a written explanation from the BCCI, even though both bodies now have a limited time frame to resolve the issue.

(ESPNCricinfo inputs)