ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Indian flag finally hoisted at Karachi’s National Stadium?

Days after the absence of the Indian flag at the National Stadium in Karachi, which will host the opening match between Pakistan and New Zealand of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, kicked up a major row on social media, the hosts seem to have made amends.

As per latest visuals from the stadium doing the rounds on social media, the Indian tricolour was seen along with the flags of a couple of other participating nations. THE WEEK could not independently verify whether the Indian flag has been put up on the roof of the stadium along with the rest of the seven countries.

Earlier this week, absence of the tricolour among the flags of the nations participating in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 sported on the roof of the National Stadium in Karachi had led to Indian fans venting their ire on social media. It is mandatory for the host country to hoist the flags of all the participating nations during any multi-nation tournament hosted by the ICC.

Reacting to the controversy, BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla had told Livemint that if the flag was indeed absent, it should have been hoisted as per the norm. The PCB, however, downplayed the incident saying the ICC has advised that only four flags need to be hoisted on match days - ICC, PCB and the two countries competing on that day, according to Hindustan Times. Another source told IANS that since India will be playing the matches in Dubai and not coming to Pakistan, the tricolour was not put up.

The PCB and the BCCI have been at loggerheads in the build-up to the tournament, with Team India refusing to travel to the host country because of security concerns, forcing the ICC to adopt a hybrid format, according to which India will play all their matches in Dubai.

India will play Pakistan on February 23.