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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Tharoor junks Rijiju's claim that he agreed Cong is 'anti-women'; hails his party
New Delhi (PTI): Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday debunked Union minister Kiren Rijiju's reported claim that the opposition party leader had agreed that the Congress is "anti-women", asserting that at no point did he imply any such thing and that his party has stood for women's rights and reservation.
Reacting to Rijiju's claims, Tharoor stressed that the Congress is totally in favour of women's reservation and prepared to have it implemented right now -- without linking it to delimitation.
In a post on X, the Congress leader said, "I am sorry, but with the greatest respect for Kiren Rijiju, at no point did I say or imply any such thing -- and I have seven witnesses in the photograph who can confirm that!"
"'That was what he meant', our Minister says. No, sir, that is NOT what I meant. 'That Congress can be anti-women...he agreed in a way,' he added. I am sorry but I did NOT agree in any way," Tharoor said.
"The Congress has stood for women's rights and women's reservation under a strong woman president in Sonia Gandhi, initiated the Women's Reservation Bill, passed it in the Rajya Sabha during our tenure and supported it in the Lok Sabha when it was brought by government of India in 2023," he said.
"We are totally in favour of women's reservation and are prepared to have it implemented right now -- without linking it to delimitation," the Thiruvananthapuram MP added.
Rijiju's reported comments came while narrating details of the conversation he had with Tharoor on April 18 after the end of the three-day special sitting of Parliament during which the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 was defeated in the Lok Sabha.
Tharoor on April 18 had shared a snippet of his conversation with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rijiju after the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die, and said the BJP leader conceded that “no one could ever call me anti-women”.
Tharoor had said women are by far the better half of the species - 'Humans 2.0' - and deserve representation in Parliament and in every institution.
"Just don’t link their advancement to a mischievous and potentially dangerous Delimitation that could devastate our democracy," he had said on X.
Sharing a picture of some opposition MPs standing with Rijiju in the Lok Sabha, Tharoor had said, "A little post-adjournment gathering of Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha with our charming Parliamentary Affairs Minister.
"When Kiren Rijiju explained why he and his party were calling the Opposition 'mahila virodhi', it was pointed out to him that no one could ever call me anti-women! He conceded the point…"
While 298 members voted in support of the Bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the Bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
The Bill proposed to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in state and UT assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
The three-day special sitting was convened from April 16 to 18 to secure Parliament's approval for the Bill.
After the bill was defeated, the Congress had said the "nefarious attempt" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to link their "dangerous delimitation proposals" to women's reservation had been decisively defeated in the Lok Sabha, calling it a win for democracy and the Constitution.
I am sorry, but with the greatest respect for @KirenRijiju, at no point did I say or imply any such thing -- and I have seven witnesses in the photograph who can confirm that!
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) April 28, 2026
"That was what he meant", our Minister says. No, sir, that is NOT what I meant. "That Congress can be… https://t.co/hkUsYgOY7a
