Instead, India has suggested to the ICC that its matches be held in the UAE in a hybrid model.

Following last Friday’s ICC board meeting, PCB was seen as agreeing in principle to let India’s matches be staged in the UAE. But its caveat was that Pakistan gets in writing that the same formula would apply to India when it hosts ICC events. This would mean that Pakistan won’t travel to India for the women’s ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in India in 2025. It was learnt that BCCI has rejected the proposal.

Internally, BCCI’s view is quite firm that PCB should not bargain for its matches to be taken away when India hosts tournaments. That there is no security concern in India was understood by Pakistan team’s visit to the country for the 2023 ODI World Cup.

The Indian team’s refusal to travel to Pakistan is because they are deemed unsafe on government advise. This position has been communicated to ICC.

When the new ICC chairman Jay Shah addresses board members for the first time in a virtual meet this week, the vexing issue of the Champions Trophy venues will also come up. The meeting is expected to be on Thursday.

It’s only been a week since the last meeting, but PCB will now be talking to Shah, who has slipped out of his BCCI shoes and heads ICC. No positive news has come from either side in the public domain. On Wednesday, PCB posted a fresh video of chairman Mohsin Naqvi taking a round of the under-renovation Gaddafi stadium in Lahore, one the three venues chosen to host the tournament. “The world class project will be completed before the Champions Trophy,” Naqvi was quoted as saying.

“They may be playing hard ball publicly, but PCB wouldn’t want to trade off, letting go of the entire tournament for a principled stand,” an ICC board member said. This is PCB’s first opportunity to host an ICC event after Pakistan’s status as an international cricket venue came into question when masked terrorists attacked the team bus carrying Sri Lanka cricketers to the Gaddafi stadium in 2009.

The last time Pakistan hosted an ICC event was when they were co-hosts with India and Sri Lanka for the 1996 ODI World Cup. Also, the Champions Trophy is PCB’s only opportunity to host a world event in the eight-year (2024-31) media rights cycle. Pakistan though has regularly hosted bilateral cricket with other nations.