The Asia Cup 2020 was formally postponed as announced by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Thursday (July 9). The tournament was supposed to be played in September, but has been affected by growing Coronavirus cases in Asia.
The ACC also announced that the Pakistan Cricket Board, which was supposed to host the 2020 event, has exchanged the hosting rights with Sri Lanka Cricket, while the PCB will host the 2022 event.
The announcement comes a day after BCCI president Sourav Ganguly revealed in an Instagram chat that the event was cancelled.
Apart from this, it was also announced that the council is seeking a window in June 2021 for hosting the tournament.
“The Executive Board of the ACC has met on multiple occasions to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Asia Cup tournament scheduled in September 2020. From the onset the Board was keen on organising the tournament as per the original schedule. However, travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, threat to fundamental health and social distancing mandates have posed substantial challenges to the holding of the Asia Cup,” stated the ACC in a media release.
"Above all, the risks related to health and safety of participating players, support staff, commercial partners, fans and the cricketing community were deemed to be significant. Accordingly, the Board, after careful consideration of all the above factors, has determined that the Asia Cup 2020 be postponed,” the statement further said.
Pakistan last hosted the Asia Cup in 2008, while the last edition was played in the UAE in 2018 and was won by India, who also won the T20 format Asia Cup in 2016, in Bangladesh.
Pakistan was supposed to host the event in the country, but India refused to travel owing to political tensions between the two nations. But the BCCI stated that it would play if the tournament is hosted by a neutral venue.
“The ACC is currently working towards securing June 2021 as a suitable window for the same. The hosts for the Asia Cup 2020, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), have exchanged hosting rights for the tournament with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). Through this arrangement, The SLC will now host the rescheduled Asia Cup expected in June 2021 while the PCB will host the Asia Cup 2022," the ACC stated.
