Champions Trophy 2025 is scheduled to start from February 19 and the mega event will take place in hybrid model where Dubai will host matches featuring India and the rest of the matches will take place in Pakistan. After the announcement of the marquee event, there were reports claiming that the whole tournament will likely to shifted to Dubai due to delays in renovation work at the stadiums in the country.
Pakistan's Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi will host the Champions Trophy 2025 and the report claimed that Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Gaddafi Stadium and National Bank Stadium will not be ready on time.
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Amid all these reports, Sports Tak earlier reported that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is closely monitoring the status of the three stadiums in Pakistan and that its delegation has not raised any concern regarding it yet. The matches which are supposed to take place in Pakistan will be played in Pakistan only.
After Sports Tak's report, IANS reported that all these reports claimed shifting of Champions Trophy 2025 is trying to tarnish Pakistan's image on social media.
"All the work (related to stadiums) will be done by the first week of February. Pakistan will successfully host the Champions Trophy. No need to go by any rumours. We are committed to giving our best. There are people who are trying to tarnish Pakistan's image on social media. We know who all they are and why they are doing this," a PCB official told IANS.
PCB also responded indirectly to all these rumours by moving their ODI tri-series involving South Africa and New Zealand, from Multan to Karachi and Lahore, saying the move was due to the advanced stage of preparations at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi's National Stadium, which will host six of the 12 Champions Trophy group stage matches.