PCB opened the coffers for the Champions Trophy, the Pakistani board is spending about 13 billion on this work
The Pakistan Cricket Board is busy preparing for the Champions Trophy to be held next year. The situation is still not clear about Team India's participation and it is believed that the tournament will be organized on the basis of a hybrid model, in which India's matches will be held in some other country instead of Pakistan. Despite this, the Pakistani board is leaving no stone unturned for preparations and is spending heavily. According to a report, the PCB is spending about Rs 13 billion just to remodel the stadium for the tournament.
After a wait of about 8 years, the Champions Trophy is making a comeback and Pakistan is hosting it for the first time. This tournament, to be held in February-March 2025, is the first ICC event on Pakistani soil in the last 29 years. In such a situation, the Pakistani board wants to keep itself prepared for this in every way and the most important thing in this was the maintenance and renovation of the stadiums and for this the PCB had set the highest budget. Some time ago, PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi had described the country's stadiums as very bad.
Pakistan has made Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi as the venues for this tournament which is starting from 19th February. Pakistani Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi told the officials in the board meeting in Faisalabad that 12.8 billion Pakistani rupees i.e. about 388 crore Indian rupees are being spent on the renovation of these three stadiums. Out of this, the maximum amount of 7.7 billion Pakistani rupees is being spent on Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, in which many major changes are being made including office building, pavilion, and flood lights.
On the other hand, 3.5 billion Pakistani rupees will be spent on Karachi's National Stadium and that also includes important issues like floodlights and buildings. The remaining 1.5 billion rupees will be spent on Rawalpindi's Pindi Stadium. Out of this, work is currently going on in the stadiums of Karachi and Lahore, while this work will be done later on Pindi Stadium because at present it is the most important venue for test matches for the Pakistani team. Pakistan recently played 2 test matches against Bangladesh here, while the test series matches against England are also to be played.
In a few days, a team of ICC will be visiting Pakistan to take stock of the preparations. During this time, along with knowing the progress of the renovation of the stadium, the status of preparations regarding security arrangements will also be checked. Apart from this, the schedule of the tournament will also be discussed, which was released by Pakistan a few weeks ago but has not been finalized yet.