India may not be able to host Asia Cup 2018, as the government has not cleared its stand to host Pakistan.
As per reports in TOI, after a meeting of COA on November 21, it is still now clear whether BCCI will get clearance from Government of India to host Pakistan or not,
“If we didn’t get the permission to host the Pakistan’s Under-19 team from the centre, it looks highly unlikely that we’ll get to do so in case of their senior team. The Pakistan athletes were given visas to take part in the Asian Athletics Championships, but the government says that cricket’s case is a bit different, since it has an emotional connect with people from both the countries. When we approached the government with a request, we didn’t get any response from them, but we need to decide fast since we need to inform the ACC soon. There are logistical, amongst many issues involved with hosting a tournament and a country needs time to sort them out,” a BCCI official told TOI.
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Pakistan and India are yet to play any bilateral series since 2012/13, despite both the countries were to play many series in past five years. The last time Pakistan travelled to India for a bilateral series was in five years back. Looking at the stand of both the governments and boards, it is highly unlikely that both the countries will play any bilateral series either. Though both the countries continue to face each other in ICC tournaments.
The Anurag Thakur-led BCCI had planned to concede points against Pakistan in ICC tournaments, but the COA-led BCCI had permitted Indian team to play Pakistan in the ICC tournaments.
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It is to be noted that the U-19 Asia Cup, which was played in Malaysia, was scheduled to be played in Bengaluru but an objection from Pakistan saw the tournament getting shifted. The same can be the case here, as Pakistan will not travel to India for the tournament, and India as well might not want to host the country.
It can see Asia Cup getting shifted from the country. The next edition of Asia Cup is scheduled to be played in September next year.
The last edition of the tournament was played in Bangladesh, which was played in a T20 format to facilitate the teams to assimilate to the T20 setup due to T20I World Cup which was planned to start just a few days after the end of Asia Cup.
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