Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Friday has assured early visas for the Indian fans who wish to visit Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy next year. Pakistan are hosts for the 2025 Champions Trophy to be held in February. However, there are still doubts about the Indian team’s visit to the neighboring country due to security reasons.
Naqvi made the assurances during a meeting with a group of Sikh pilgrims from the United State. “We will be keeping a special quota of tickets for Indian fans and we will try to make the visa issuance policy brisk,” Naqvi was quoted as saying by a newspaper.
Naqvi said that the PCB would like to see Indian fans visit Pakistan and watch the Indian and Pakistan match in Lahore. Pakistan is scheduled to host the ICC mega event in February-March 2025 but until now the ICC has still not released the tournament schedule as they wait on confirmation if the Indian government would allow its team to travel to Pakistan for the event.
Earlier, the BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said that the government is yet to decide on India’s travelling to Pakistan for the mega event. “No decision has been taken (yet). But our policy is that for international tours, we always seek the permission of the government. It’s up to the government to decide whether our team should go to any country or our team should not go to any country,” Shukla told PTI.
“In this case (also), whatever the government will decide, we will abide by that,” he added.
India didn’t travel to Pakistan since 2008
The BCCI has made it clear it has to follow any policy decision of their government when it comes to visiting Pakistan. No Indian team has travelled to Pakistan since 2008 Mumbai terror attack. There has been no Test series between the two countries since 2007.
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