Asia Cup | Sarfraz Ahmed expresses his disappointment at India-favouring schedule

After two consecutive years of the tournament taking place in Bangladesh, it was India's turn to host the Asia Cup 2018 tournament as claimed by the BCCI chairman back in 2015. However, as India was unable to host the tournament because of the political tensions between it and Pakistan, the tournament is being played in the UAE at Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The tournament is scheduled by the BCCI in such a way that all teams except India are supposed to travel to both the venues for their matches. India shall play all the matches in Dubai. Pakistan skipper, Sarfraz Ahmed believes that the committee is being partial by doing this and equal treatment should be given to all the teams.

“If you look at the schedule, even if India lose pool match, they still play in Dubai. Travelling is an issue. If you have to travel 90 minutes and then play matches with a gap of a single day, then it is challenging. I believe it should have been same for all the teams, irrespective of whether it is India or Pakistan. I don’t know what was Asian Cricket Council’s thought behind this. I think PCB is looking into the matter,” said the Pakistani skipper, as reported by PTI.

However, BCCI has defended the decision by saying that the schedule is made in order to fulfil commercial goals which were kept in mind while planning the entire tournament.

“The Dubai International Stadium has a capacity of 25,000 which is 5000 more than capacity of Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. For India versus Pakistan or India versus Bangladesh games, it is expected to be packed to capacity. BCCI is only getting the gate sales and how can we compromise on 5000 seats,” a senior BCCI official said.