Daily Times

LAHORE: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday gave hosting rights of Champions Trophy 2025 to Pakistan after its Board meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Pakistan will host an ICC event after more than three decades. Pakistan last staged an ICC event in 1996 when they co-hosted the 50-over World Cup with India and Sri Lanka, but the country has been largely starved of international cricket since the 2009 attack on the touring Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore. It is also a shot in the arm for the Pakistan Cricket Board which has worked hard to bring back international cricket to Pakistan after the 2009 terrorist attacks. The development came as the ICC yesterday announced the 14 host countries of ICC men’s white-ball events from 2024-2031. 11 Full Members and three Associate Members have been selected to host two ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups, four ICC Men’s T20 World Cups and two ICC Men’s Champions Trophy events. The USA and Namibia will host an ICC World Cup event for the first time. Whilst Australia, Bangladesh, England, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe have previously staged major events and will do so again over the next decade.

Ramiz Raja over the moon: Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ramiz Raja has thanked the International Cricket Council for awarding the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 to Pakistan, saying the event will showcase Pakistan’s passion for the sport. The ICC Board’s decision means Pakistan will defend the ICC Champions Trophy title in their backyard when the eight-team and 15-match tournament is held at three iconic venues in February 2025. Pakistan had defeated India by 180 runs in the 2017 tournament at The Oval. “I am pleased no-end with the ICC’s decision to select Pakistan as a host nation for one of their elite tournaments. By allocating a major global event to Pakistan, the ICC has expressed complete confidence and faith in our management and operational capabilities and skills. We have continued to demonstrate how a great host we are and through the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, we will again showcase our passion and love for the sport as this event will be a boon to the millions of home fans, who will see world class teams and their favourite international players from close quarters. We not only endeavour to plan and deliver a world-class event, we will also prepare and field a strong and formidable side that can perform and entertain our home fans. We saw during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign how the nation got united and the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at home will be another opportunity to further strengthen that bond as we defend the title,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ICC Board finalised the venues for the eight events based on the recommendations of a working group which shortlisted the hosting countries based on the bids put forth by the member countries. Overall, there were 28 proposals from 17 countries including 14 hosts. The working group was led by former New Zealand fast bowler Martin Snedden who is chairman of New Zealand Cricket and its representative on the ICC Board. Also part of the this working group were former India captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Cricket West Indies’ president Ricky Skerritt. Also part of this working group was former PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani until he stepped down recently.

The hosting countries are in complete contrast to the previous cycle (2017-23) where majority of men’s global tournaments were distributed between the Big 3 countries comprising India, England and Australia. The last time a men’s global tournament was held in a non-Big 3 country was the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. However with the exponential growth of T20 cricket, the ICC has had a growing ambition to make the sport global. That has been the key element of the ICC’s global strategy and thus the distribution of the global events in the next FTP thus has been spread uniformly across all continents.

In the next cycle of global tournaments, which begins with the 2024 T20 World Cup, the ICC has decided to allow smaller countries to have the opportunity to play as hosts. Along with the USA, Namibia will be hosting their maiden global tournament as co-hosts for the 2027 ODI World Cup with South Africa and Zimbabwe. It will also be the first men’s World Cup in Africa since South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe co-hosted the 2003 edition. Also Scotland and Ireland will play co-hosts along with England for the 2030 T20 World Cup.

The hosts and years

Hosts of T20 World Cup

United States and West Indies — 2024

India and Sri Lanka — 2026

Australia and New Zealand — 2028

England, Ireland, Scotland — 2030

Hosts of Champions Trophy

Pakistan — 2025

India — 2029

Hosts of 50-over World Cup

South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia — 2027

India and Bangladesh — 2031