Pakistan to host 2025 Champions Trophy, India get 3 ICC events in next cycle including 2026 T20 WC
Dubai, Nov 16: Major cricket event will return to Pakistan after more than two decades with the country set to host the 2025 Champions Trophy, an ICC flagship tournament.
The ICC board on Tuesday awarded the hosting rights of the 2025 Champions Trophy to Pakistan, while picking United States and West Indies as co-host of the 2024 T20 World Cup. This will be the first ever global event hosted in North America.
According to the announcement, India will get to host three ICC events in the next cycle, including the 2026 T20 World Cup and 2031 50-over World Cup, where the country will be Co hosts along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively. India will also host the 2029 Champions Trophy singularly.
Pakistan, who had last co-hosted the 1996 World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka, have not been able to host many international games in the country since the 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore.
The Champions Trophy was last held in UK in 2017 and it will be making its return in the ICC calender after a gap of eight years.
New Zealand and England have recently pulled out of a tour of the country and it will be interesting to see if teams finally get ready to travel to Pakistan.
"In all probabilities, they might have to host in UAE," a source said as there will certainly be a certain degree of reluctance to travel to that part of the world.
The game's governing body on Tuesday said that as many as 14 ICC members will host ICC men's events from 2023 to 2031.
"11 Full Members and three Associate Members have been selected to host two ICC Men's Cricket World Cups, four ICC Men's T20 World Cups and two ICC Men's Champions Trophy events," the apex body said in a release.
"The USA and Namibia will host an ICC World Cup event for the first time. Whilst Australia, Bangladesh, England, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe have previously staged major events and will do so again over the next decade."
ICC Chair Greg Barclay thanked every member that submitted a bid and congratulated the successful bidders.
"To have 14 Members hosting 8 events is a reflection of the truly global nature of our sport," he said.
"It is fantastic to be returning to so many previous hosts, but what is really exciting about this process is the countries who will stage ICC events for the first time including the USA which is a strategic growth market for us.
"This gives us the opportunity to deepen our connection with fans in traditional cricket nations and also reach new fans around the world."
The hosts were selected via a competitive bidding process overseen by a Board sub-committee chaired by Martin Snedden along with Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Skerritt.
The ICC Board accepted the recommendations of the committee who conducted a thorough review of each bid along with ICC management.
A similar process to identify the hosts for ICC Women's and U19s events for the next cycle will be undertaken early next year.
Ricky Skerritt, Cricket West Indies President and ICC Board member said: "The success of this joint bid by CWI and USA Cricket will be a huge boost for our cricket. It offers a vital strategic opportunity to promote and develop cricket, and related commercial activity, in North America and the Caribbean..."
The awarding of the events to preferred hosts is subject to the completion of the host agreements and the ICC will now work closely with Members to finalise arrangements.
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Slain Australia beach shooting suspect native of Hyderabad: T'gana police
Hyderabad/Melbourne (PTI): Sajid Akram, the 50-year-old slain suspect in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia, was an Indian citizen hailing from Hyderabad, Telangana Police revealed on Tuesday.
While he had migrated to Australia 27 years ago, Akram carried an Indian passport. Akram, along with his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, recently travelled to the Philippines on an Indian passport.
Akram, one of the two suspects in the mass shooting that has left 15 people dead and dozens injured, migrated to Australia in 1998 and had limited contact with his family here since then, the Telangana DGP's office said in a statement.
"Sajid Akram (50) is originally from Hyderabad, India. He completed his B.Com degree in Hyderabad and migrated to Australia in search of employment, approximately 27 years ago, in November 1998," it said.
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He married a European-origin woman before settling permanently in Australia. The couple have one son, Naveed (the second suspect who is in custody at a hospital in Australia) and one daughter, it said.
Naveed and Akram's daughter were born in Australia and are citizens of that country, the statement said.
On Tuesday, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett described the mass shooting as "a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State."
According to Australian authorities, the suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24. The older man, who was identified as Sajid Akram, was shot dead.
The Telangana police said Akram visited India on six occasions after migrating to Australia, primarily for family-related reasons such as property matters and to meet his elderly parents.
It is understood that he did not travel to India even at the time of his father's demise, the statement said.
The family members have further expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation, police said.
"The factors that led to the radicalisation of Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana," Telangana police said.
Telangana Police further said it has no adverse record against Akram during his stay in India before his departure in 1998.
The state police said it remains committed to cooperating with central agencies and other counterparts, as and when required, and urged the public and media to avoid speculation or attribution without verified facts.
Quoting security sources, Australia's ABC News reported that Akram and Naveed travelled to the Philippines to receive "military-style training".
"Investigators are now examining the Akrams' ties to an international jihadist network, after discovering the pair travelled to Manila in early November," it said, quoting officials briefed on the investigation.
The Philippines Bureau of Immigration confirmed the pair arrived in the Philippines from Australia on November 1, declaring the southern city of Davao - a hotbed for Islamic militants since the 1990s - as their destination, it said.
"They left the country on November 28, 2025, on a connecting flight from Davao to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination," ABC News quoted the Philippines' Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval as saying.
Sandoval said Akram entered the country on an Indian passport, while his son, Naveed, entered on an Australian passport.
In the Philippines, Undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office and Press Officer for Malacanang Palace Claire Castro said that the National Security Council (NSC) is currently looking into reports that the father and son duo travelled to the country a month before the attack.
