Indian blind team to visit Pakistan amid BCCI’s ‘unclear’ stance on CT25

Amid the ongoing uncertainty regarding India's visit to Pakistan for Champions Trophy 2025, their blind cricket team is all set to tour Pakistan for the Blind Cricket T20 World Cup 2024.

The World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) on Friday, announced the schedule for the fourth edition of the Blind T20 World Cup, featuring teams from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka and hosts Pakistan.

The mega event will run from November 23 to December 3 with matches scheduled in Lahore and Multan.

Lahore will host 15 matches including the curtain raiser between Pakistan and South Africa, while nine matches, including semi-finals and final will be held in Multan. Whereas, bitter rivals Pakistan and India will collide on November 25.

India has won all of the previous editions of the T20 World Cup, held in 2012, 2017 and 2022.

The fourth edition marks the first instance that the mega event is being held outside India.

Despite this, the Indian blind cricket team was the first to confirm its participation in this year's mega event.

The development came when India men's cricket team's participation in next year's Champions Trophy in Pakistan is uncertain.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) numerously stated that the decision regarding whether India will travel to Pakistan, will be made by the federal government.

Earlier this month, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla shared that the cricket governing body was still awaiting the government's approval regarding Champions Trophy.

“No decision has been taken (yet). However, our policy is that for international tours, we always seek permission from the government,” Shukla stated.

“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,” the BCCI VP added. “In this case (also), whatever the government will decide, we will abide by that.”