The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Monday (May 8) decided to move the Asia Cup 2023 out of Pakistan. The call was made after PCB's proposal to host the event on a 'hybrid model' was rejected by the member nations.

Sri Lanka has emerged as a front-runner to stage the multi-nation tournament, scheduled to be held in September.

Meanwhile, a report published in PTI claims that the PCB officials have opposed the shifting of this year’s Asia Cup to Sri Lanka and are seriously mulling boycotting the competition.

According to the report, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Najam Sethi met with the ACC officials on Tuesday (May 9) and opposed the move to relocate the Asia Cup to Sri Lanka.

“Sethi has stressed the ACC should accept Pakistan’s revised hybrid model proposal schedule for the Asia Cup and if at all the majority of members wish to have it elsewhere it must be held in UAE like in 2018 and 2022.

“Sethi rubbished the concerns of the BCCI conveyed to the ACC that it would be too hot to play in UAE in September by pointing out today that the BCCI had held its IPL in UAE in September to November in 2020,” one reliable source in the PCB said, as quoted by PTI.

“I can tell you this much Sethi has taken a new hybrid model schedule to the ACC and it is a proposal they shouldn’t reject now,” he revealed.

The source said the PCB was surprised to learn that the Sri Lankan board with back door support from BCCI had told the ACC it wants to stage the Asia Cup later this year.

“It came as a surprise because earlier at the last ACC board meeting in February, Pakistan,Bangladesh, Afghanistan had rejected the Lankan proposal and it was agreed Pakistan would remain the host.”

Before departing for Dubai, Sethi had reportedly told his officials to start working on having a 3 to 4 nation event in Pakistan this year in the Asia Cup window if the continental event is not held in the country.

(With PTI Inputs)