Courtesy: X
With just two days remaining to the opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, a viral video on the social media X, wherein the Indian flag is seemingly absent from the rooftop of the National Bank Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan, has sparked a major controversy. The cricket fans on both sides of the border are not shying away from sharing their unfiltered opinion on the situation, especially when the political relationship between India and Pakistan is far from good.
Notably, Pakistan are the official hosts of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, but still, the Indian cricket team didn’t travel across the border to play the coveted tournament after the government decided against it. This led to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) working out the hybrid model to have their team play the matches at a neutral venue in Dubai, the UAE, with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
India are playing their ICC Champions Trophy matches in the UAE not Pakistan
In the viral video on X, which is reportedly from the National Bank Stadium in Karachi, where the hosts Pakistan are set to take on New Zealand in the opening match of the Champions Trophy on Wednesday, February 19, there were flags waving on top of the stadium of every team except India. With that, many are presuming that there is still a lingering issue between the PCB and BCCI in regards to how the tournament should have been organised.
Watch the video here:
While SportsTiger can’t confirm the authenticity of the video, the relationship at the political level has been quite up and down as far as India and Pakistan are concerned. Regardless, the cricket teams of both the nations will be looking to put those things on the side before taking each other in the Group A clash of the upcoming ICC tournament at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, February 23.
Moreover, Pakistan are the defending champions of the upcoming ICC tournament, which they won eight years ago after defeating India in a one-sided final in London, England.
