Asia Cup postponed to 2021; Sri Lanka handed hosting rights over Pakistan
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC), in an official release, have confirmed that the 2020 edition of the Asia Cup has been postponed to 2021, with the hosting rights of the 2021 edition going to Sri Lanka. The council did, however, confirm that Pakistan will host the 2022 edition of the tournament.
A day after BCCI President Sourav Ganguly unofficially spilt the beans that the Asia Cup was cancelled, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), on Thursday, have confirmed that the tournament will not take place in 2020 due to complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The council have stated that the 2020 edition will instead be pushed to next year and also confirmed that Sri Lanka have been awarded hosting rights for the same. Originally, it was Pakistan who held the hosting rights for the 2020 edition, but the ACC have stated that the Emerald nation will instead play hosts to the 2022 edition of the competition.
“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, 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,” read an ACC press release.
“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 expected in June 2021 while the PCB will host the Asia Cup 2022.”
The cancellation of the Asia Cup does free up the calendar for team India and the BCCI, who could now completely shift their focus on staging the IPL towards the latter half of the year.
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