Despite the reluctance from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to send the national team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has not budged on its decision to host the mega-event entirely within the country. As per reports, PCB had devised a plan to move the Indian team from and back to India after each of their matches. All of India’s games will be played in Lahore, a city that borders Indian state of Punjab, making it easy for logistics. It is also understood that the board will give 17000 visas to Indian fans if India travels to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. However, there have not been very positive responses from BCCI. In fact, the only response the Indian board has given so far is that the team awaits a decision from the Indian government regarding the travel to Pakistan.
Pakistan’s former fast bowler and captain, Wasim Akram, thinks the opposite. The left-arm pacer, talking ahead of Pakistan’s white-ball tour down under, said that he is hopeful that the Indian team will come to Pakistan and will be treated ‘amazingly well’ in the country.
“I think whatever I’m reading, there are positive vibes from [the] Indian government and [the] BCCI. I also read somewhere they will play probably all their games in Lahore. They will probably come to Lahore and travel [back] the same night. I’m all for it, as long as India is comfortable. And I can promise you, they [are] going to get looked after amazingly well.” Akram said.
Akram believes that Indian players, especially the main ones, have a huge fan following in Pakistan and young fans would love to witness them play in their own country.
I mean, Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, [Hardik] Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, they have fans in Pakistan. The young cricket fans adore them.”
The eight-team tournament will be the first ICC event that Pakistan will host solely. There have been some suggestions of hosting the tournament in a hybrid model, just like the Asia Cup last year. However, Pakistan are not interested in arranging any game outside of the country. The other alternative is leaving India to be replaced by Sri Lanka but that would not be liked by the sponsors and broadcasters given that India bring a lot of viewership. Earlier, England Cricket Board’s (ECB) chief Richard Gould said that the mega-event without any of Pakistan or India would not be beneficial for the game. Akram, too, is of the opinion that India’s presence in the Champions Trophy would be beneficial for all the stakeholders involved.
“People-to-people contact is very important in this day and age,” he said. “In this social media age, there’s so much negativity all over the world, unnecessary negativity in my opinion, and I think if India come, it will be great for cricket, and of course, it’ll be great for Pakistan too.”
The tournament is slated to take place from February 19 to March 9 across three venues including Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi.
