Pakistan to host New Zealand, South Africa in tri-series ahead of Champions Trophy 2025

On Friday, March 15, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that Pakistan will host an ODI tri-series involving the South Africa National Cricket Team and the New Zealand National Cricket Team just before the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

The hosting rights of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy are with Pakistan and the country is set to host the competition in February-March 2025. The tournament consists of 8 teams and the qualification was decided based on the performance of the teams in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India. Pakistan are currently the defending champions of the Champions Trophy, having won the last edition in 2017.

Although Pakistan have hosting rights, there is a strong possibility of the competition being played in a hybrid model just like the Asia Cup 2023 as the Indian government is unlikely to send Team India to the country for the tournament, as per reports. Notably, PCB was also the host of the Asia Cup 2023 but the tournament was played in a hybrid model in Pakistan and Sri Lanka after BCCI denied sending the Men In Blue to Pakistan.

Coming back to the tri-series, the newly-appointed chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Mohsin Naqvi recently met the Chairman of Cricket South Africa (CSA) Mr Lawson Naidoo, and the Chairman of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) Mr Roger Twose to have various discussions, with one of them being the tri-series before Champions Trophy, which would provide the teams with an adequate amount of practice to the teams before the marquee tournament.

The Tri-series was finalised and welcomed by the host and both the member boards – Pakistan Cricket Board

In an official media release, PCB stated that the proposal for the tri-series in February 2025 was welcomed by Cricket South Africa (CSA) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC).

“The agenda of the meeting included the ODI Tri-series between Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa, to be held in February 2025 in Pakistan, just before the ICC Champions Trophy. The Tri-series was finalised and welcomed by the host and both the member boards. Chairman PCB also extended an invitation to Mr Roger Twose and Mr Lawson Naidoo to visit Pakistan,” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in an official media release.

Notably, this will be after a wait of two decades that Pakistan will host a tri-series. The last time they hosted a tri-series was in October 2004 involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

“The Tri-series between Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand will be an exciting event and it is after a long time that Pakistan will host such a tournament. I would like to thank the heads of NZC and CSA for agreeing to participate in the Tri-series. The PCB is also looking forward to hosting the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 which will be a great pleasure for Pakistan to host the top eight ODI teams on its soil,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi stated.

Meanwhile, the teams that will be competing in the Champions Trophy are hosts Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, India, England, Bangladesh, Australia, and Afghanistan.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will follow the same format as the previous seasons as the teams will be divided into two groups of four each and the top two teams of each group will enter the semi-finals before the winners of the semi-finals face each other in the summit clash.