KARACHI: Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Mohsin Naqvi expressed his hope and reiterated the board’s commitment to host the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan.
Naqvi, while addressing the media at the National Bank Stadium on Monday night, following the conclusion of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 9, gave an overview of his participation in the ICC Board Meeting, the core agenda of which was the Champions Trophy 2025.
“We are committed towards hosting the ICC Champions Trophy at home. I am really hopeful that it will take place in Pakistan.
“Champions Trophy was on the agenda of the ICC meeting I attended recently, and I reinstated our board’s commitment towards hosting the event.”
PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi further revealed that the major stadiums of the country will undergo upgradation before the global event.
“Our three main venues – Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi – will be upgraded before the Champions Trophy. We will upgrade other venues later as well, once these three are done. Our stadiums will be state-of-the-art once they have been renovated.”
He further confirmed to have met his Indian counterpart, Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ICC Board Meeting and revealed that the conversation was “very fruitful”.
“I met with Jay Shah, Secretary BCCI, and the conversation we had was very fruitful. I will not be going into details as it is a sensitive matter, but I want to reassure everyone that PCB is committed towards holding the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, and will leave no stone unturned to achieve that.”
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When asked about a decision being made regarding the coaching staff, Chairman PCB replied, “We are currently working on it. We are trying to finalise the coaching staff at our earliest.
“I will not go into details, but there is a lot of backend work being done to search and finalise the staff, as the players are scheduled to leave for Kakul soon as well. We will try to hire the best we can find.
“I will not be taking any names, as all the discussions are in preliminary stages. We will announce the coaching staff as soon as it is locked.”
PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi then went on to acknowledge the deteriorated conditions of pitches in the country’s major stadiums and shared that he is planning to get around five different kinds of pitches in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.
“I am trying to get four or five different kinds of pitches made in National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore. One will be made out of Australian soil, one will be made out of English soil and the remaining two or three pitches will replicate other regions,” stated PCB Chairman.
I hope we are successful in this endeavor as such pitches are required by our players. Our stadium pitches are quite dead as well so they need to be worked upon. We do not have technical experts for this in the country so we might need to fly someone in,” he concluded.