India's participation in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan next year did not come up for discussion during the four-day annual conference of the International Cricket Council (ICC) which ended in Colombo on Monday.
However, The Telegraph understands that it has been informally conveyed to the ICC that India won't be travelling to Pakistan and would wish to play in the UAE or Sri Lanka as per the hybrid model.
"Since it wasn't part of the agenda, nothing was discussed at the board meeting or the AGM. The ICC will make appropriate arrangements when the time comes," a source told this newspaper.
However, the Jay Shah-chaired ICC's finance and commercial affairs committee has approved the budget for the February-March tournament.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was represented by its chairman Mohsin Naqvi at the meeting.
Perhaps the decision to not tour Pakistan will be intimated to the PCB during the elections to the ICC chair in November. There has been no headway on whether chairman Greg Barclay will continue for another term.
Shah has remained non-committal on his speculated move to the ICC headquarters in Dubai.
The ICC has confirmed that a review into the conduct of T20 World Cup in the US and the West Indies will be carried out by three of its board directors — Roger Twose, Lawson Naidoo and Imran Khawaja — who will submit their findings later this year.
Several questions have been raised regarding the pitch in New York, where 16 of the 55 World Cup matches were hosted, besides spiralling costs which overshot the estimated budget several times.
A member of the ICC board, Pankaj Khimji, had also sent an email calling for an investigation into the US leg.
Two senior ICC officials — head of events Chris Tetley, and Claire Furlong, the general manager, marketing and communications — who were closely involved in the running of the US leg have already resigned.
For the next men's T20 World Cup in 2026, the ICC said the allocation of the eight regional qualifying spots would be as follows: two teams each from Africa and Europe, one from the Americas, and three from Asia and East Asia Pacific (EAP) combined. Previously, Asia had two spots and EAP one.
The ICC also announced that USA Cricket and Cricket Chile have been "formally put on notice" because both organisations are not compliant with ICC membership criteria.
"Neither member is considered to have in place a fit for purpose detailed governance and administrative structure and systems," the ICC said in a media release.
"The ICC Americas office will work with Cricket Chile to support them in remedying their non-compliance. The board agreed that a normalisation committee comprising of board and management representatives will be set up to oversee and monitor USA Cricket's compliance roadmap and the ICC board will reserve its right to suspend or expel the member for continued non-compliance."
Eye on Bangladesh
The ICC is also learnt to be "closely monitoring" the violent situation in Bangladesh over the past fortnight. The Women's T20 World Cup will be played there later this year with matches taking place in Dhaka and Sylhet.
