The ongoing deadlock of Champions Trophy 2025 is not something hidden anymore. With India refusing to visit Pakistan for the tournament, citing issues of security as a core reason things have been under major setback.
The preparations of Pakistan related to the series have been questioned multiple times and with the recent incident of fire at the hotel where the blind cricket teams were staying, teams other than India are also questioning the security of hosting nation.
While ICC suggested Pakistan to go for a hybrid model, PCB initially opposed the idea. However, after several meetings and discussions with the Indian Board as well ICC, they have finally agreed to adopt a hybrid model.
This agreement, however, comes with certain conditions. A major among them is to implement a long-stretch hybrid model on all the upcoming ICC tournaments to be hosted by either India or Pakistan until 2031.
In such a setting, all the matches requiring the participation of either of the two nations will be played at a neutral location.
The reports suggest BCCI has rejected this proposal but the pressure for acceptance is there from the ICC. The core objective is to take a decision that goes in the favor of cricket as a game and so, the ICC is enforcing both India and Pakistan to come to mutual terms.
While the speculations suggest BCCI will sooner or later agree to the stretched hybrid model, the question whether Pakistan is actually ready to host such a giant tournament or not remains unanswered.
With a history of terrorism and security-related issues, teams participating in the tournament are expecting there would be fool-proof arrangements of security for the players, management as well as fans.
