Asian Cricket Council pushes Asia Cup to June 2021

Within 24 hours of BCCI President announcing that the Asia Cup has been cancelled for this year, Asian Cricket Council (ACC) have officially pushed it June 2021. The committee also confirmed that the event will be hosted by Sri Lanka. They have swapped hosting rights with Pakistan who will now stage the tournament in 2022.

“Travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, threat to fundamental health and social distancing mandates have posed 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,” the ACC stated in a media release.

The Asia Cup is played once every two years, and it has been alternated between T20Is and ODIs since 2016. This year’s Asia Cup was supposed to be hosted by Pakistan. However, with India’s objection to playing in Pakistan, the tournament was shifted to UAE.

The last edition of the Asia Cup was also played in UAE in 2018. India defeated Bangladesh by three wickets in the final to win their 7th title.