Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ashley de Silva yesterday (13) refuted reports published by certain news agencies that Sri Lanka will be in line to replace India if the latter decide to withdraw from the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 which is due to start in Pakistan.

He said that thus far there had been no official communiqué to the SLC from the game’s world controlling body and insisted that it would be best to leave matters as they were.

De Silva noted that India too for their part had not officially confirmed their pulling out of the said tournament, which is to be staged in February-March next year.

According to the SLC CEO, they are still in the dark on whether the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has urged the ICC to relocate the event either to Colombo or the UAE. However, he stressed that the SLC would not be commenting on issues which were yet unofficial.

“It’s better that we keep matters as they are or else our neighbouring nations will be antagonised. We do not want to do that as our relationships with all of the cricket boards are strong and cordial.”

News agency reports on Friday (12) claimed that Rohit Sharma’s men were unlikely to head to Pakistan for next year’s Champions Trophy, while Sri Lanka, who did not qualify owing to their ninth place finish in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup last year, would replace them.

It was also the first time ever that Sri Lanka, the winners of the edition 22 years ago in Kenya, had failed to qualify while India have reportedly announced that they will only travel to Pakistan with Government approval.

This also wouldn’t be the first time India’s stance has impacted a tournament’s location as per news agency reports, as the 2023 Asia Cup was held in a ‘hybrid’ format due to the same issue.

In that tournament all of India’s matches were played in Colombo, while the rest of the teams competed in Pakistan.