The Asia Cup T-20 cricket tournament has been postponed to June 2021 and Sri Lanka will now host the rescheduled Asia Cup in June 2021 . During the last Asian Cricket Council (ACC)l meeting which was held on July 9 (Thursday) it was mutually decided to postpone the Asia Cup to June 2021 and Sri Lanka will be hosting this major tournament , as the original host Pakistan has already given the assurance said an SLC official.
The Executive Board of the ACC has met on several occasions to evaluate the impact of the Covid -19 pandemic on the Asia Cup tournament which was originally scheduled in Pakistan on September 2020.
Meanwhile ACC Media release stated that from the onset the ACC Board was keen on organising the tournament as per the original schedule. However, travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, fundamental health risks and social distancing mandates have posed as substantial challenges to the holding of the Asia Cup. 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. Conducting the event in a responsible manner remains the priority of the ACC and the Board is hopeful that the tournament will be held in 2021. The ACC is currently working towards securing June 2021 as a suitable window for the same.
It may also be noted that the hosts for the Asia Cup 2020, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has exchanged hosting rights for the tournament with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). Through this arrangement, the SLC will now host the rescheduled Asia Cup in June 2021 while the PCB will host the Asia Cup 2022 ‘stated on the ACC release after the meeting .
Asia Cup was established in 1983 when the ACC was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years.
The first Asia cup was held in 1984 in Sharjah in the UAE where the council’s offices were based (until 1995). India boycotted the 1986 tournament due to strained cricketing relations with Sri Lanka. Pakistan boycotted the 1990-91 tournament due to strained political relations with India and the 1993 tournament was cancelled for the same reason. The ACC announced that the tournament would be held biennially from 2009 onwards. The International Cricket Council has ruled that all games played in the Asia Cup have official ODI status.
However after downsizing the Asian Cricket Council in 2015, it was announced by the ICC that Asia Cup events from 2016 would be played on a rotation basis between ODI and T-20 format, on the basis of the format of upcoming world events. As a result, the 2016 event was the first event played in the T20I format and functioned as a preparatory tournament ahead of the 2016 ICC World T-20
India, with seven titles (six ODI and one T20), is the most successful team in the Asia Cup tournament while Sri Lanka is the second most successful team, with five. Sri Lanka has played the most Asia Cups (14) followed by India and Pakistan who have played 13 each.
The last Asia Cup was held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2018 and India defeated Bangladesh at the final to take the championship.
0 comments:
Post a Comment