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According to a report in Pakistani media, the 2025 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy will kick off without an opening ceremony due to the delayed arrivals of the England and Australian cricket teams in Pakistan.
![The 2025 edition of ICC Champions Trophy will commence without an opening ceremony. [Photo: ACB / X]](https://images.news18.com/ibnlive/uploads/2021/07/1627283897_news18_logo-1200x800.jpg?impolicy=website&width=640&height=360 "The 2025 edition of ICC Champions Trophy will commence without an opening ceremony. [Photo: ACB / X]"){kind=logo}
The 2025 edition of ICC Champions Trophy will commence without an opening ceremony. [Photo: ACB / X]
The 2025 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, which is set to be played from February 19 to March 9 across three venues in Pakistan and one in Dubai, will not have an opening ceremony. According to a report in Pakistani media house Geo Super on Thursday (January 30), due to the delayed arrival of the England and Australian cricket teams in Pakistan, the plans to host an opening ceremony have been cancelled.
“The upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will commence without an opening ceremony due to the delayed arrival of two participating teams. As a result, traditional pre-tournament events, including the press conference featuring all eight captains and the official photoshoot in Karachi, have also been cancelled,” the report stated.
It has been that reported that English team which is set to play three-match ODI series in India before the ICC Champions Trophy will land in Lahore on February 18 and Australian team which is in Sri Lanka these days for a two-match Test series and two-match ODI series will arrive in Pakistan on February 19.
The Indian team will not travel to Pakistan due to tense political relations between the two countries, and instead its matches are scheduled to take place in Dubai. Bangladesh, on the other hand, will also not travel to Pakistan before February 21. Bangladesh’s first match of the ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled to take place on February 20 against India at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Afghanistan is expected to reach Islamabad on February 12, and the other two participating teams—South Africa and New Zealand—will be in Pakistan from the first week of February itself, as they are set to take part in a tri-series from February 8 to 14.
The Geo Super report states that “England has opted for a one-week break after their extensive India tour, which concludes with a white-ball series on February 12. Similarly, Australia, following their Sri Lanka tour ending on February 14, has decided on a four-day rest period before arriving in Pakistan.”
“Due to their late arrival, both England and Australia have decided to skip their allotted warm-up matches,” it added.
The report quoted an ICC official, according to whom, “ICC and PCB had shown interest in hosting an opening ceremony, but the schedules of England and Australia, along with player workload management, made it unfeasible. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) clarified that while an opening ceremony was discussed internally and with the ICC, no official confirmation or announcement was ever made.
Despite the cancellation of the opening event, the PCB has plans to host a special event before the Pakistan-New Zealand match at the National Stadium in Karachi on February 19.
