Underscoring the extent of politics seeping into cricket – whose heartland is a region marked by a never-ending feud between nuclear armed countries India and Pakistan – it is unclear where exactly the Champions Trophy final on March 9 will be played.

The problems of the biggest cricket event of the year were put aside when it launched in Karachi on Wednesday with Pakistan playing New Zealand. It was fever pitch outside the National Stadium with huge crowds arriving early. There was much anticipation from giddy locals as a long drought ended for Pakistan, who last hosted a major cricket event at the 1996 World Cup.

There was plenty of pomp in the opening ceremony with the Pakistan Air Force lighting up the sky in the national colors of green and white, while the country’s president Asif Ali Zardari stood center stage next to the literal trophy in an opportunity to flex some political muscle.

There did seem to be some diplomacy with India’s flag flying high in the terraces among others from the participating countries, but the political spectre looms large. The credibility of this tournament – revived for extra pull in a media rights package worth billions – has to be questioned with the location of the first semi-final and the final, slated for Lahore, to be determined depending on how India performs.

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The logistical nightmare is due to India refusing to travel to Pakistan amid a strict stance from its right-winged Modi government. There was no reciprocation for Pakistan travelling to India for the 2023 World Cup, where an uneasy nationalistic fervor swept the terraces especially during the match-up between the countries in Ahmedabad.

Even though Pakistan in 2021 was named as host of the Champions Trophy, authorities seemingly avoided the inevitable and waited for the car crash to arrive.

India threatened a boycott – a financial disaster that was always going to be avoided at all cost – and a resolution was only brokered less than two months before the tournament began.

The UAE, once Pakistan’s home base when they were nomads through last decade due to security concerns, will stage all of India’s matches, including their money-spinner against Pakistan in Dubai on February 23 which was sold out within minutes.

India were already favored to claim the tournament, with a depth of talent unrivalled especially with weary World Cup champions Australia ravaged by injuries and apparent apathy.

But they also will undoubtedly benefit given they are the only team ensured of being based in the same country throughout. Their power-laden batting-order will also enjoy the sterile conditions of Dubai’s surface.

The tournament should be a prolonged moment for Pakistan – a country every bit as crazy about cricket as India and boasting the sport’s most mercurial team – to shine in the sun after three decades away from the global spotlight.

Pakistan had hoped to win a World Cup in this cycle of events from 2023-31 and as I reported in 2021 they were unsuccessful in a joint bid with Oman and UAE for a T20 World Cup in 2026 or 2028.

Pakistan had to settle for the consolation of a diminished Champions Trophy that has spiralled into a mishmash of a competition now spanning two countries. Looming large in the background, Jay Shah will helm his first event as the International Cricket Council chair. Shah, the son of India foreign minister Amit Shah, was previously holding the top post in India’s governing body amid festering relations with Pakistan.

Now running world cricket, Shah has the heft to perhaps finally help resolve this deep divide – the cricket part of it, anyway – which continually blights the sport and makes a mockery of its supposed showpiece events.

But Shah is reportedly unlikely to journey to Pakistan in the early stages. He was not at the opening ceremony, which was attended by outgoing ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice and deputy chair Imran Khwaja.

Why bother with conciliatory efforts when Shah can merely stroll metres from ICC headquarters in Dubai to watch his beloved country attempt to win a tournament that was merely resurrected to extract more money from Indian broadcasters.