Champions Trophy is three months away and so far no decision has been made as to whether India will travel to Pakistan for the mega-event. The constant silence from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is only increasing the uncertainty around the decision. The board has said several times that the team’s travel to Pakistan is contingent on approval from the government, though there has not been so much as a murmur about it from the Indian government.
As much as everyone awaits the decision, things will get more complex in the event that the Indian government restricts the national team from visiting Pakistan. By rules, Sri Lanka will replace India in the tournament. However, the broadcasters would not want to let the brand puller out. Richard Gould and Richard Thompson, England Cricket Board’s (ECB) CEO and Chairman, believe the same. The ECB chiefs, who are in Pakistan currently, have said that there are a lot of ways to tackle this impending impasse, but leaving India out is not one of them. Gould said that in order to protect broadcasting rights, it is important for both cricketing giants to participate in the eight-team tournament.
“If you play the Champions Trophy without India, or Pakistan, the broadcast rights aren’t there, and we need to protect them,”
However, he also said that in case India do not come to Pakistan, there are plenty of alternatives that can be adopted.
“They [Pakistan] are the host nation. We’ve seen the developments going on, and we’re all waiting to understand whether India are going to travel. That’s the key. We think there are some discussions and relationships where they need to be. I know Pakistan are expecting India to travel. There are lots of different alternatives and contingencies available if that doesn’t happen.”
Since their last bilateral tour in 2012-13, where Pakistan visited India for a white-ball tour, Pakistan and India have only been meeting during multi-nation tournaments. Though the tension between both nations is rooted in politics, cricket benefits from it substantially. This, in addition, to the one-of-a-kind rivalry between both teams makes the India-Pak encounters nothing less than an event in itself. Thompson said that cricket will suffer should India not participate in the Champions Trophy.
“It would not be in cricket’s interests for India not to be playing in the Champions Trophy,” said the chair of the ECB.
However, he is hopeful that the new ICC chairman, Jay Shah, who is also serving as the BCCI secretary, along with Pakistan’s leadership will find a way.
“It’s interesting, with Jay Shah – the former secretary of the BCCI and now chair of the ICC – [who] is going to have a big role to play in that. There’s geopolitics, and then there’s cricketing geopolitics. I think they’ll find a way. They have to find a way.
“There are always security concerns in this part of the world when those two countries play each other. That will probably drive the key decisions. But I know relationships between the two countries are as amicable as they can be at the moment: we saw it play out at the [men’s T20] World Cup in New York.”
There is also an option of hosting the tournament in a hybrid setting and shifting India’s matches out of Pakistan. However, the PCB do not look too keen to implement this plan.
