The Indian men’s cricket team will play its ICC Champions Trophy 2025 matches in Dubai. According to a report in the news agency AFP on Sunday (December 22), which quoted a Pakistan Cricket Board official, PCB chose the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai as a neutral venue for next year’s Champions Trophy.
“Pakistan has chosen Dubai as the neutral venue for the Champions Trophy, and it has been conveyed to the ICC officially, meaning India will play its matches there," a PCB spokesman was quoted as saying by AFP.
The announcement came three days after the ICC confirmed that all matches involving India in the eight-team event would be held outside of Pakistan. As part of the same agreement, Pakistan will play at a neutral venue in any event hosted by India until 2027, a compromise reached after a month-long standoff between the two archrivals.
Apart from India and Pakistan, two-time champions Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will feature in the 2025 edition of the Champions Trophy, which is reportedly set to be played from February 19 to March 9 next year.
India hasn’t travelled to Pakistan for any cricket match since July 2008, and in the last 16 years, on multiple occasions, India and Pakistan have faced each other in the United Arab Emirates. The India-Pakistan matches in the 2018 and 2022 editions of the Asia Cup were played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, and the high-voltage 2021 T20 World Cup match between the two teams was also held at the same venue.
It has also been reported that the ICC will release the schedule of the ICC Champions Trophy this week. The last edition of the ICC Champions Trophy was played in 2017. In the final match of the last edition of the Champions Trophy, Pakistan hammered India by 180 runs to win the title for the first time.
Australia is the most successful team in ICC Champions Trophy history. The six-time ODI World Cup winners have twice won the Champions Trophy title as well. India won the Champions Trophy in 2013 by getting the better of England in the final, and in the 2002 edition, India was declared as a joint winner with Sri Lanka after the final got washed out due to rain. South Africa, New Zealand, the West Indies, and Pakistan have won one Champions Trophy title each.
