Sri Lanka to host Asia Cup in Aug-Sept
ACC President Jay Shah at the AGM
The Asia Cup 2022–a T20 competition will be held from Augusts 27 to September 11 in Sri Lanka, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced during its Annual General Meeting held between the member countries in Colombo on Saturday.
“The Asia Cup 2022 (T20 Format) will be held in Sri Lanka from 27 August – 11 September later this year. The Qualifiers for the same will be played 20 August 2022 onwards,” the ACC said in an official statement.
The competition will see all five Test teams–Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh- as will one more Asian side that will be decided after a qualifying tournament which will be held from August 20. Teams in the fray to earn the one remaining spot in the main draw are UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong
The Asia Cup is held every two years but the 2020 edition of the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sri Lanka were supposed to host the 2020 edition, but Covid-19 pushed the event to 2021 before finally being moved to 2022. Pakistan, who were supposed to host the 2022 Asia Cup, will hosts the 2023 edition.
Since the inception of the tournament in 1984, India remain the most successful side in the history of the Asia Cup, winning seven of the 14 editions so far, including the last two editions (1984, 1988, 1990/91, 1995, 2010, 2016 and 2018).
During the last edition of the tournament, Rohit-Sharma led Team India defeated Bangladesh in the final in Dubai.
The upcoming edition of the Asia Cup will only be the second occasion when the tournament will be played in the T20 format.
During the AGM, it was unanimously decided that Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, will continue as the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) president for one more year till 2024. Pankaj Khimji of Oman Cricket Board was appointed the vice-president of ACC and Mahinda Vallipuram of Malaysia Cricket Association was named the chairman of developing committee.