Former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq has addressed India’s reluctance to travel to the neighbouring country for the 2025 Champions Trophy. His statement comes after reports of the budget approval by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“It’s simple. If India want to come, they can come. If they don’t want to come, that’s fine. There’s no point in making a fuss about it. It doesn’t make either side good or bad. That’s the ICC’s activity and they will look into it, as they should,” Mushtaq said, as reported by Cricket Pakistan.

It should be noted that India did not travel to Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup and their matches, including the final, were held in Sri Lanka. However, Pakistan later travelled to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup.

It will be interesting if Pakistan travels to India for the 2025 Asia Cup if the BCCI decides not to send a team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy.

The ICC approved a budget of $70 million for the tournament, of which $4.5 million was earmarked for extra expenses.

“The approximate budget is around $70 million and only $4.5 million has been set aside for additional expenses,” news agency PTI reported, citing a source.

The amount of additional expenses approved for India to play their matches outside Pakistan is minimal if they decide not to travel due to ‘security restrictions’.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had earlier said that it was now in the hands of the ICC to convince India to come and play in Pakistan.

“The PCB has done what was expected of it as the host of the Champions Trophy. It has presented the draft programme and format of the event and also presented the budget for the event,” PTI reported, citing a PCB source.

India and Pakistan will face each other only in ICC and Asian tournaments and will not contest bilateral series due to political tensions between them.