England Cricket Board’s (ECB) Chief Executive Officer, Richard Gould, confirmed that the England cricket team and board are not only willing to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025 but also are committed to ensuring the mega-event is entirely played on the rightful hosts’ soil. In an interview with BBC Test Match Special during the Tea break of the recently concluded last Test match between England and West Indies, Gould voiced his strong support for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) by saying,
“There’s a great deal of determination to make sure it [Champions Trophy 2025] is [hosted in Pakistan next year],” Gould said, “Particularly from the PCB and the ECB.”
This statement comes at a crucial time for Pakistan when they are waiting for the International Cricket Council (ICC) to decide how the Champions Trophy will be organized. After the Annual General Meeting in Colombo, a PCB official was quoted as saying that the PCB has left the decision to the global cricket governing body.
“The PCB now has done what was required of it as hosts of the Champions Trophy. It has submitted the draft schedule and format for the event and also submitted the budget for the event, it is now up to the ICC how soon they circulate, discuss, and finalize the schedule of the Champions Trophy. The PCB for its part in the draft schedule has suggested hosting all of India’s games in Lahore including a semi-final (if India qualifies) and final,”
Gould also expressed his interest in hosting Pakistan and India for a Test match, an opportunity a lot of Boards in the cricketing world want to grab owing to the commercial importance of the clashes between both Asian giants.
“Everybody would love that. I wouldn’t say it’s [hosting and India v Pakistan Test] impossible. The politics between the BCCI and the Pakistan Cricket Board are long known, as are the politics between governments. And I find that fascinating,” the 54-year-old said during the interview.
He also went on to say,
“We were in Sri Lanka over the weekend for ICC meetings, and you see Pakistan cricket supporters and India cricket supporters getting on so well, but as soon as the political element is put in, it creates issues,”
Previously, Cricket Australia (CA) had also offered to host both teams at one of their cricket stadiums for a Test match, however, nothing as such has been finalized by the respective governing bodies yet. It has been more than a decade since both nations last competed in a bilateral setting. Pakistan visited India for a white-ball tour in 2012-13, after which the Asian neighbors have only encountered each other during mega-events. This is the first time since then that an ICC Event is being hosted in Pakistan.
Last year, the men in green traveled to India for the ODI World Cup, hoping that India would return the favor by visiting their neighbors for the Champions Trophy 2025. ICC has a lot of thinking to do to tackle this conundrum but the pending decision is making the fans more and more anxious.
