The announcement made by India that they will not be traveling to Pakistan and participating in the Champions Trophy 2025 has once again strained the relations between the two countries. The announcement made by India that they will not be traveling to Pakistan and participating in the Champions Trophy 2025 has once again strained the relations between the two countries. There was a lot of chatter surrounding India’s participation in the tournament, but USA patrons were informed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) about India’s decision on Sunday and did not make any such indication.
In the past, however, India did put forth a hybrid proposal so that their national team would only play the reports in Dubai. However, Pakistan refused to accept this. As per the media reports, Pakistan is considering other alternatives, including one where the tournament is hosted without India or even boycotting the tournament.
For the ICC, the possibility wherein either India or Pakistan opts to withdraw from the Champions Trophy 2025 tournament is bad news. ICC has already secured the broadcast rights till 2027 which were worth $3.2 billion and expected an additional $1 billion from other streams. The audience of both the teams is extensive, and their absence will prove detrimental to the competition’s viewership itself as well as popularity of the competition.
In spite of India’s standing in the ICC as the highest exporter of revenue, even the absence of Pakistan is troubling especially in the long run.
Bearing in mind the ICC rotation, it’s clearly displayed that India will stage four international events from 2024 to 2031 which are 2025 Women’s World Cup, T20 World Cup in 2026, ICC Champions Trophy in 2029, and Cricket World Cup in 2031. If Pakistan chooses to refrain from sending their team for the competitions in retaliation for India refusing to organize the last champions trophy, they will massively hurt the tournaments’ audience.
The two teams have not engaged in a bilateral series for more than a decade due political differences and the only other occasions that they meet is International tournaments. This certainly creates great excitement around these games and the ratings speak volumes on how these games are a hit amongst cricket audiences.
Cricket Pakistan further reported, “these events had the attention of the 173 million Indian TV viewers and 225 million digital viewers, and the importance of these fixtures was accentuated by the 2023 World Cup.”
However, even if Pakistan consents to the ‘hybrid’ model, it is going to be a challenge regarding the money set aside for the tournament. Certainly, as this PTI report explains, a source explained that the amount set for the tournament was 70 million with only $4.5 million kept for miscellaneous expenses by ICC.
If Pakistan consents to relocating India’s games to Dubai, how would that be different if it only increases costs whilst adding travel time for the teams? And Yes, they can amend the budget if plans were to change, but how about the overall logistics of all the teams participating including networks like India and Pakistan.