ISLAMABAD: The International Cricket Council (ICC) board is set to meet virtually today, Friday, to discuss three options to end a stalemate between Pakistan and India ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament that is slated to be held in February next year, ESPNcricinfo reported.
Pakistan is set to host the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi from February 19 till March 9. However, political tensions with India have already cast a shadow over the tournament following the refusal by Indian authorities to allow their team to play in Pakistan.
Last week, the ICC informed Pakistan of India’s decision, prompting the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to seek a clarification. Pakistan has already ruled out a hybrid model to host the tournament, unlike last year’s Asia Cup, wherein all of India’s games were played in Sri Lanka.
The situation created uncertainty and tension until the ICC released the tournament promo, visually reaffirming that Pakistan will host the championship. According to AP, the ICC board could decide on the issue by voting among members.
“The ICC board will congregate on Friday in the hopes of ending the saga of where and how the 2025 Champions Trophy will be played with less than three months to the scheduled start of the event,” ESPNcricinfo reported. “They will consider three options.”
The first option would be to adopt a hybrid model that has already been ruled out by Pakistan, while the second option revolves around the PCB retaining hosting rights and the tournament being played “entirely out of Pakistan,” according to the report.
The third option would be to hold the entire tournament in Pakistan, “but without India.”
“The last of those options is almost a non-starter, given the negative financial and commercial impact it will have on the tournament,” the report read. “The chances of a hybrid model were reduced on Thursday after a PCB official told ESPNcricinfo they had informed the ICC once again that it was off the table.”
The report quoted the official as saying that the PCB had asked for a “reasonable or acceptable” proposal to Pakistan before the ICC board meeting. It said the chances of a hybrid model had increased, quoting PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi as saying that he would discuss the ICC board’s decision with the Pakistani government.
“Whatever we do, we will make sure the best outcome for Pakistan is achieved,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Naqvi as saying. “But I repeat, and I am sure you know what I mean, it’s not possible that Pakistan play in India, and they don’t come here.”
Naqvi also doubled down on Pakistan not being willing to play in India any longer. India will be hosting the Women’s World Cup next year, Asia Cup in 2025, Men’s T20 World Cup in 2026 and Champions Trophy in 2029.
Pakistan could consider a hybrid model if the ICC gave the PCB the same option for tournaments being hosted by India, according to ESPNcricinfo.
It quoted the PCB chairman as saying that Pakistan would not be motivated by any financial settlement.
“We’ll not just sell our rights out just for more money. This will never happen. But we’ll do whatever is best for Pakistan,” he said.
A decades-long tense political situation between the two South Asian countries hasn’t seen India playing international cricket in Pakistan since 2008 when it competed in the Asia Cup. Both nations have competed in ICC tournaments, with Pakistan touring India last year for the 50-over World Cup.
The ICC is in talks with the PCB and the participating boards before finalizing the schedule of the eight-team tournament. The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 tour kicked off on Saturday after the trophy was displayed at the Pakistan Monument and Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

KARBALA: Rami, a Syrian worker in Iraq, spends his 16-hour shifts at a restaurant fearing arrest as authorities crack down on undocumented migrants in the country better known for its own exodus.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of foreigners working without permits in Iraq, which after emerging from decades of conflict has become an unexpected destination for many seeking opportunities.
“I’ve been able to avoid the security forces and checkpoints,” said the 27-year-old, who has lived in Iraq for seven years and asked that AFP use a pseudonym to protect his identity.
Between 10 in the morning and 2:00 am the next day, he toils at a shawarma shop in the holy city of Karbala, where millions of Shiite pilgrims congregate every year.
“My greatest fear is to be expelled back to Syria where I’d have to do military service,” he said.
The labor ministry says the influx is mainly from Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also citing 40,000 registered immigrant workers.
Now the authorities are trying to regulate the number of foreign workers, as the country seeks to diversify from the currently dominant hydrocarbons sector.
Many like Rami work in the service industry in Iraq.
One Baghdad restaurant owner admitted to AFP that he has to play cat and mouse with the authorities during inspections, asking some employees to make themselves scarce.
Not all those who work for him are registered, he said, because of the costly fees involved.
Some of the undocumented workers in Iraq first came as pilgrims. In July, Labour Minister Ahmed Assadi said his services were investigating information that “50,000 Pakistani visitors” stayed on “to work illegally.”
Despite threats of expulsion because of the scale of issue, the authorities at the end of November launched a scheme for “Syrian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers” to regularise their employment by applying online before December 25.
The ministry says it will take legal action against anyone who brings in or employs undocumented foreign workers.
Rami has decided to play safe, even though “I really want” to acquire legal employment status.
“But I’m afraid,” he said. “I’m waiting to see what my friends do, and then I’ll do the same.”
Current Iraqi law caps the number of foreign workers a company can employ at 50 percent, but the authorities now want to lower this to 30 percent.
“Today we allow in only qualified workers for jobs requiring skills” that are not currently available, labor ministry spokesman Nijm Al-Aqabi told AFP.
It’s a sensitive issue — for the past two decades, even the powerful oil sector has been dominated by a foreign workforce. But now the authorities are seeking to favor Iraqis.
“There are large companies contracted to the government” which have been asked to limit “foreign worker numbers to 30 percent,” said Aqabi.
“This is in the interests of the domestic labor market,” he said, as 1.6 million Iraqis are unemployed.
He recognized that each household has the right to employ a foreign domestic worker, claiming this was work Iraqis did not want to do.
One agency launched in 2021 that brings in domestic workers from Niger, Ghana and Ethiopia confirms the high demand.
“Before we used to bring in 40 women, but now it’s around 100” a year, said an employee at the agency, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
It was a trend picked up from rich countries in the Gulf, the employee said.
“The situation in Iraq is getting better, and with salaries now higher, Iraqi home owners are looking for comfort.”
A domestic worker earns about $230 a month, but the authorities have quintupled the registration fee, with a work permit now costing more than $800.
In the summer, Human Rights Watch denounced what it called a campaign of arbitrary arrests and expulsions targeting Syrians, even those with the necessary paperwork.
HRW said that both homes and work places had been targeted by raids.
Ahmed — another pseudonym — is a 31-year-old Syrian who has been undocumented in Iraq for the past year and a half.
He began as a cook in Baghdad and later moved to Karbala.
“Life is hard here — we don’t have any rights,” he told AFP. “We come in illegally, and the security forces are after us.”
His wife did not accompany him. She stayed in Syria.
“I’d go back if I could,” said Ahmed. “But life there is very difficult. There’s no work.”