There is a tradition that an opening ceremony takes place before ICC Champions Trophy where all the captains are invited for photo shoot and pre-event photo shoot.
This year the ceremony is going to take place in between 16 and 17 february. It is going to take place in Pakistan. There are speculations that Rohit Sharma might be attending the ceremony in Pakistan.
The Champions Trophy, although hosted by Pakistan, is to be played in a hybrid model. The matches including Indian Team would be played at a neutral location i.e. UAE.
While the tournament was to be hosted by Pakistan alone, BCCI refused travelling to the neighbouring country – transforming the trophy into a big dispute. However, after so many meetings and discussions across the boards, ICC finally succeeded in pulling an agreement – convincing PCB for a hybrid model.
Apart from the group-stage matches, semi-finals and final are also scheduled to be played in UAE in case of India qualifying. Given that BCCI has been very rigid about not sending their team to Pakistan, reports suggesting that Rohit Sharma would be attending the opening ceremony brings a lot of questions and doubts amongst fans.
In a recent statement, BCCI proclaimed that they haven’t received any official invitation regarding the matter neither there were any discussions with ICC. They will respond over this matter very carefully after fully evaluating the repercussions for this is a very sensitive matter, further added the board’s representatives.
The BCCI’s response, however, do not clarifies anything at all. Whether Rohit Sharma will attend the opening ceremony or not still remains ambigous. While the BCCI officials and players already got their visiting visas very swiftly, it now depends on the final decision of the Indian Board and we can only wait for the official announcement.
