The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Tuesday shifted the 50-over Asia Cup 2018 from India to United Arab Emirates, due to constant tension between Indian and Pakistani government.
The tournament will still be hosted by India and will be held from September 13-28 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi after all the member nations of ACC agreed collectively for the venue change during a meeting at its Kuala Lumpur headquarters.
“Johri apprised the ACC board of the current situation. The BCCI has got a clearance that they can play Pakistan at a neutral venue. While it is a given for ICC tournaments, Asia Cup being an ACC tournament needed a government approval. Once the approval to allow Indian team play Pakistan at a neutral venue was agreed upon, the board’s request was placed,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
“Since this is not World Cup, Champions Trophy or World T20, it was a foregone conclusion that the government would not approve BCCI hosting Pakistan in prevailing circumstances. The public sentiment needs to be respected,” the official said.
The Indian team is expected to play its matches in the second week of the tournament as they would have just completed their tour of England.
“UAE will be facilitating the organization but all the other modalities remain same. The Star Sports will be broadcasting the tournament and the gate money (collection from tickets and in stadia) will be BCCI’s. Obviously BCCI will be paying the Emirates Cricket Board a facilitation fee,” the official further informed.
The reason for siring in on UAE is purely logistical.
“India wouldn’t have played in Pakistan. But UAE is one place where there is a sizeable population of India, Pakistan and even Afghanistan. Even non-India matches is expected to attract a lot of crowd. If you see, 1 dirham is nearly Rs 18 (INR 17.69 as of today). Had the tournament been in held in India, matches like Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka wouldn’t have attracted much crowd,” the official added.
The Asia Cup is a biennial event which is now held in both ODI and T20 formats. In 2016, it was held in the T20 format as the teams wanted to test their performance ahead of the ICC World T20, which was held in India.
In 2018, it will be held in ODI format as the teams are finalizing their opportunities and a perfect squad for ICC Cricket World Cup of 2019.
The 2018 edition of the Asia Cup will be a six-team affair with the five member nations – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Sixth participating team will be decided by a playoff between- UAE, Hong Kong, Nepal and Oman.
