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Senior editor, ESPNcricinfo- Osman spent the first half of his life pretending he discovered reverse swing with a tennis ball half-covered with electrical tape. The second half of his life was spent trying, and failing, to find spiritual fulfillment in the world of Pakistani advertising and marketing. The third half of his life will be devoted to convincing people that he did discover reverse swing. And occasionally writing about cricket. And learning mathematics.
The intrigue over where and how the Champions Trophy 2025 will be held continues, with the ICC Board giving the PCB, the hosts, more time to find a workable solution along with the BCCI - whose India team will not travel to Pakistan - and the ICC. It is expected that any resolution will come within the next 24-48 hours.
The decision to get the main parties together to work towards a solution was taken after an ICC Board meeting on Friday that lasted less than 15 minutes. The emphasis at the meeting was to find a way to break the deadlock around the eight-team tournament. A PCB team, led by chairman Mohsin Naqvi, was in Dubai for the meeting, although it was an online call for most boards.
A couple of other member boards will now sit down with ICC leadership, the PCB and BCCI to work towards a solution that is acceptable to all parties. There is a suggestion that talks have been taking place on the matter over the last day or so, but they will continue on Friday and likely Saturday as well. Naqvi has said publicly that he was open to the BCCI discussing any issues they have with travelling to Pakistan with him, an opportunity that he has now been presented with.
In all likelihood, any proposal will have to be run past the governments of both India and Pakistan before it is presented to the ICC Board for approval; India was refused permission to travel to Pakistan by the Indian government and the PCB has said repeatedly, as a result, that any action they take will have to be approved by their government.
The ICC Board, which comprises representatives from all 12 Full Member countries, had called for Friday's meeting with three options on the agenda for how the tournament would play out:
The hybrid option, where the majority of the matches are in Pakistan but those involving India are played outside Pakistan
The tournament is played entirely outside Pakistan, with the PCB retaining hosting rights
The entire event is played in Pakistan but without India
The PCB has more or less stuck to its public stance of not wanting a hybrid model, though in the last couple of days mention has been made of it being dependent on certain conditions - which could involve a similar reciprocal arrangement for future ICC events in India where Pakistan may not now get permission to travel. On Thursday morning, Naqvi didn't directly rule out a hybrid model - as he had done in the past - but said only that any decision would have to be approved by the Pakistan government and would be in the best interests of Pakistan.
The tournament is due to begin in less than 90 days, on February 19. Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi are the venues inked into host the games, though if a hybrid option is chosen, that will involve another venue outside Pakistan. A match schedule of the tournament had been approved at the ICC Board meetings in October this year, though the issue of India's travel was always going to be an obstacle.
That India would not be given permission to travel to Pakistan only became public, however, earlier this month when the BCCI informed the ICC of the development. That meant the official launch of the schedule, due on November 11, was postponed. The PCB has since been pushing for specific answers as to why India are unable to travel and when and how the BCCI informed the ICC. They have also insisted on a written explanation from the BCCI, though both boards now have a limited window in which to find a solution.
Additional reporting by Firdose Moonda