PCB Criticizes BCCI For Mixing Politics With Cricket Over Rohit Sharma's Absence
A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official lashed out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for bringing politics into cricket and not sending Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to Pakistan for the opening ceremony of the Champions Trophy 2025. The tournament is all ready to kick start from February 19. Earlier it was reported that Rohit was expected to attend the captain's photoshoot and the pre-event press conference in Pakistan. Due to political tensions and security reasons, Team India won't be traveling to Pakistan for the upcoming tournament and will be playing all their matches in Dubai as per the hybrid model. The most awaited match of the tournament between India and Pakistan will be played on February 23. However, the BCCI has not given their take on sending Rohit to Pakistan, and one more thing that disappointed the PCB official is that there are reports that the Indian team won't be wearing Pakistan's name on their tournament jersey.
A PCB official stated that,
"BCCI is bringing politics into cricket, which is not at all good for the game. They refused to travel to Pakistan. They don't want to send their captain (to Pakistan) for the opening ceremony; now there are reports that they don't want the host nation's (Pakistan) name printed on their jersey. We believe that the world governing body (ICC) will not let this happen and will support Pakistan."
India will start their campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20 and will be clashing with Pakistan on February 23. India will be facing New Zealand in their final group stage on March 2.
INDIA'S SQUAD FOR CHAMPIONS TROPHY 2025
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja