The ICC is confident that all teams will travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy

India’s participation in Pakistan’s 2025 Champions Trophy is a “challenging” issue for the International Cricket Council, but the world governing body has said it is confident all teams will travel to the country for the tournament.

International parties have largely fled Pakistan since Islamist militants killed six policemen and two civilians in 2009 against a bus in Lahore’s Sri Lanka group. The 50-year-old tournament will be Pakistan’s first ICC event since it shared the 1996 World Cup with India and Sri Lanka and last week’s announcement was a big boost after England and New Zealand left the tour in September.

Asked if the ICC was sure the groups would go to Pakistan, President Greg Barclay told reporters on Monday: “From what we can see, absolutely. We would not reward the event if we did not think it was capable of organizing Pakistan. I am sure, as in all countries, “We are comfortable and we are confident that it will go ahead.”

There were fears that the decisions taken by New Zealand and England would trample on Pakistan’s international cricket chances again, but Australia confirmed this month that it would tour for the first time since 1998 next year.

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The chances of India traveling to Pakistan for the first time since the 2008 Asia Cup have not been clarified, however.

Indian sports minister and former head of the cricket committee Anurag Thakur told reporters last week that safety was the main concern and that the government would call when the time came.

India took on Pakistan in a two-way series in 2013, but painful neighbors rarely meet outside of world championships these days. Pakistan played in India at the 2011 World Cup as well as the T20 World Cup in 2016.

“We know it’s a difficult problem,” Barclay said. “From my point of view, I cannot control geopolitical forces. I hope that cricket will have the strength to help improve relations between countries. One of the great things that sport can do is help bring nations together. If we can do something small to help with that, that’s wonderful. ‘