Cricket Asia Cup 2010 still in the balance

Sports

By S.R. Pathiravithana

Ajantha Mendis made a huge impact at the last Asia Cup tournament, which Sri Lanka were the winners.

Will Sri Lanka keep the custody of Asia’s cricket plum – the Asia Cup for a while longer at least?

At present the political vibes between the two cricketing giants in Asia – India and Pakistan is not at its best.

At the same time the next edition of the Asia Cup has been scheduled for April 2010 with the United Arab Emirates showing interest to act as the hosts. Ironically the tournament may also face another obstacle.

Generally in the Asian region cricket has kept an unwritten open window for the Indian Premier League tournament where most of the world’s cricketing celebrities converge. As a result it is very unlikely that India would agree to go ahead with the beleaguered tournament during that time of the year.

During the last edition held in Pakistan Sri Lanka emerged victorious with Sri Lanka’s ‘new kid on the block’ Ajantha Mendis breaking into the World Stage in no uncertain terms.

Commenting on the issue Sri Lanka’s Cricket’s IC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said that they have spoken both India and Pakistan unofficially and shown their desire to go ahead with the tournament as scheduled, still the obstacles that are larger than cricket were still looming ahead.

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has said that the next Asia Cup would be held in a non-Test playing nation. In 2008 UAE along with Hong Kong were the two non-test playing nations taking part.

The UAE has a big South Asian population and it is hoping the state-of-the-art cricket and training facilities will help them win the rights to host the competition.

Ranatunga also divulged that the Future Tours Programme that runs from May 2012 to 2018 also have been formalized, but is slightly delayed owing some concerns shown by the Pakistani hierarchy.

He said “We have given slots to all full member countries including Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (ODIs only). However any tour will be given the final green light only after we receive a security clearance.

Ironically at present we can not comment on any thing about the FTP proper as it has to be ratified by the ICC directors”.

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