The Asian Cricket Council (ACC), on June 15, 2023, Thursday, announced the dates and venues of the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 tournament which will be played in a hybrid model jointly by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The tournament was supposed to be solely hosted by Pakistan, but everything came to a standstill when in October 2022, BCCI secretary and ACC chairman Jay Shah announced that the Indian team will not be traveling to Pakistan for the tournament.
He also stated that the tournament would be shifted to a neutral venue as it happened in 2018 and 2022.
This led to a long-drawn battle between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the BCCI, which later got ICC involved as well.
The then PCB chief Ramiz Raja threatened to boycott both the Asia Cup and the 2023 World Cup which is to be played in India if Asia Cup was moved out of the country.
After Raja was ousted, Najam Sethi carried on the same point of view and upped the ante on both BCCI and ICC, by giving statements in media. After BCCI didn’t budge at all on coming to India, PCB opted to provide a hybrid model, which saw them hosting a handful of matches and UAE hosting the matches of India and the final, if India reached the summit clash.
But the BCCI, the Sri Lankan board, the Afghanistani board, and the Bangladeshi board didn’t agree to play Asia Cup in the UAE heat in September and later wanted the tournament to be played in Sri Lanka, which was more than ready to host the tournament.
After much drama with PCB continuing to threaten boycotting the World Cup, ICC officials went to Lahore to meet with PCB officials and finally, it was reported that they had agreed to play part in Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and BCCI had agreed to play via the hybrid model.
And now, ACC revealed that there will be 13 matches in total played in Asia Cup 2023 with Pakistan hosting 4 matches and Sri Lanka, the remaining 9 matches, including the final. The tournament begins on August 31.
“We are delighted to announce that the Asia Cup 2023 will be held from 31st August to 17th September 2023 and will see the elite teams from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Nepal, compete in a total of 13 exciting ODI matches.
The tournament will be hosted in a hybrid model with four matches being held in Pakistan, and the remaining nine matches being played in Sri Lanka,” ACC said in a statement.
The tournament will feature six teams divided into two groups, with two teams from each group qualifying for the Super Four stage. The top two teams from the Super Four stage will then face off in the final.
(ACC inputs)
