Financial repercussions likely as ICC misses CT25 contractual deadline

The International Cricket Council (ICC) may have missed the contractual deadline to release the Champions Trophy fixtures and schedule. The deadline was 90 days before the event, leaving stakeholders, chiefly Disney Star or merged Jio Star, the ICC's media partners and the biggest bankrollers of global cricket, badly affected.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the designated hosts, has taken serious exception to the prolonged delay in resolving the crisis. A senior PCB official contacted ICC CEO Geoff Allardice to express displeasure over the ongoing uncertainty.

It is being reported that the broadcaster opposes any proposal to decouple India and Pakistan into separate groups, which would allow Pakistan to play all its league fixtures at home.

The ICC is most likely to adopt a hybrid arrangement during its November 29 meeting, which would require the hosts to travel to another country for their match against India.

There may be some truth to these points, as they highlight the context of the 50-over format, which has been steadily losing its appeal to the shorter T20 version. Worldwide debates have been questioning the relevance of ODIs altogether. The loudest argument in favour of the 50-over format remains the quadrennial World Cup, which is a huge commercial success, with the India-Pakistan clash being its blue riband fixture.

While the World Cup itself features 10 teams, a Champions Trophy with just two teams less, would make little sense without an India-Pakistan match.

The ICC had previously rejected proposals to convert the Champions Trophy to a Twenty20 format. Given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the tournament's draw and fixtures, there is a growing debate over whether a shorter format might have been more logistically, operationally, and commercially viable.

It is now the biggest challenge for the ICC to convince a defiant Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to embrace the hybrid model. The PCB's rigid stance of not accepting it means the Champions Trophy will have implications since India is refusing to travel to the country. This could force the ICC to consider relocating the tournament, raising the possibility of Pakistan boycotting the event altogether.

There will be some serious and inevitable fallouts to any of these scenarios being adopted. Pakistan may threaten to boycott events in India which will be hosting five global/continental championships in the current cycle ending in 2031:

• 2025: Women's ODI World Cup
• 2026: Men's T20 World Cup (with Sri Lanka)
• 2029: Men's Champions Trophy
• 2031: ODI World Cup (with Bangladesh).