The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally eased its stance, saying that they are ready to accept the ‘hybrid model’ for the upcoming Champions Trophy provided the International Cricket Council (ICC) opts for the same arrangement for world events that are scheduled to be held in India until 2031. India is slated to host three men’s events until 2031 — the 2026 T20 World Cup jointly with Sri Lanka, the 2029 Champions Trophy, and the 2031 ODI World Cup jointly with Bangladesh.
With this, the PCB has significantly softened its stance as the board was earlier threatening to boycott the Champions Trophy if Pakistan is not given the hosting rights in full.
If the Champions Trophy goes ahead in a hybrid model, then India will most likely play its matches in Dubai. “The current situation is that PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has said that it will only accept hosting the Champions Trophy on a hybrid model if the board agrees that in the future all ICC events will be on the same system with Pakistan not going to India to play matches,” news agency PTI quoted a source as saying.
As per the news agency PTI, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has even sought financial perks for the PCB to accept the hybrid model.
“Pakistan also wants the ICC board to increase its financial cycle share of revenues from 5.75 percent and Naqvi is insistent on this but he has not sought any additional hosting fees,” a source told PTI.
“People are saying that Naqvi has sought time to get back after talking to his government but we don’t know if he went there with the backing of the government and had already sought their approval to make his stand in the ICC board’s virtual meeting,” he added.
