Pakistan opt for UAE as neutral venue for India's Champions Trophy matches

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), hosts of the 'hybrid' 2025 Champions Trophy, officially named Dubai as the neutral venue for India's matches in the tournament. The development comes after the schedule for the tournament was announced on Tuesday. The writing was already on the wall when PCB had communicated this to the International Cricket Council (ICC)."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 spokesman for the PCB had said, as quoted by AFP.Also See: Champions Trophy 2025 ScheduleThe UAE has three international stadiums - in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. But Dubai was presumably chosen because of its bigger facilities to stage India matches.ALSO WATCHPCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, and Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) chairman, Sheikh Mubarak Al Nahyan, had a meeting to finalise their decision, according to a Cricbuzz report. The India vs Pakistan crowd-puller will be held on February 23.The deadlock over the hosting model of the February 19 to March 9 Champions Trophy next year was broken on December 19 after an agreement between the ICC, PCB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on the basis that India-Pakistan matches in global events will be played at neutral venues till 2027."This will apply to the ICC Men's Champions Trophy 2025 (Pakistan), ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 (India) and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 (India and Sri Lanka)," the ICC had said in its statement.The standoff had begun after the BCCI told the ICC that the Indian team won't travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy.Besides India and Pakistan, the other teams featuring in the Champions Trophy will be Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.Also See: Champions Trophy 2025