Former captain Shahid Afridi's recent remark has added more fuel to the Champions Trophy buzz. International Cricket Council has made it clear to PCB that a hybrid model is the only possibility for the mega tournament which is set to be held early in 2025. Afridi has told their board to not send their national cricket team to any of the events or ICC tournaments. He said they should refrain from it unless BCCI agrees to send Team India to Pakistan.
Afridi's big remark
Speaking at the Karachi Arts Council's Urdu conference, Afridi stressed the importance of the Pakistan Cricket Board taking a strong stand on cricket relations with India. He said that Pakistan needs to become independent to make wise choices, especially when it comes to competing in ICC tournaments like the Champions Trophy.
"Pakistan cricket should be strong and self sufficient and take strong principled decisions. If India can't come and play in Pakistan then there is no reason for us to go and play any event in India," Afridi said.
According to a top International Cricket Council (ICC) source, the global governing body for the sport has agreed to conduct the Champions Trophy in a hybrid model, allowing India to play its share of matches in Dubai while agreeing "in principle" to a similar arrangement in multi-lateral events until 2027. India has refused to play its Champions Trophy matches in Pakistan and instead demanded that the tournament be played in a "hybrid model" that would allow it to play its matches at a neutral venue.
Afridi also backed the strong stand taken by PCB in the matter of Champions Trophy after India refused to send the team to Pakistan once again for the marquee event which eventually resulted in the postponement of the final schedule announcement.
Even the ICC now has to decide whether its responsibility is to ensure every member nation gets to play cricket or it just wants to make money," he added.
Afridi also highlighted Pakistan cricket's massive problem is how their policy changes every time there is a power shift. He even gave the example of the time when Shaheen Shah Afridi was made the captain of the T20I side but later asked to step down just after one series.
"When Shaheen was made Pakistan T20 captain I was against it and I said that the board should have made Muhammad Rizwan the captain as he was the best choice. But once they made Shaheen captain it was also wrong for the PCB to remove him as captain after just one series. It affected him,” he said.