While the contradictory statements have recently come out from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) about the hosting country of Asia Cup 2020̣, an Asian Cricket Council (ACC) member has given some light on it.
Pakistan has got the hosting rights of the Asia Cup 2020. While the BCCI hasn’t changed their views on not playing in Pakistan, as they even reportedly requested the PCB to shift the hosting nation of Asia Cup 2020 outside Pakistan, the PCB is considering all this factor.
Most recently, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has told the reporters that the forthcoming Asia Cup will be organised in Dubai, and both India and Pakistan will play in this tournament.
However, soon the PCB chief Ehsan Mani has stated that they are still in discussion mode and will take the final call based on the interests of all the Asian countries.
ACC will officially announce the host nation of Asia Cup 2020
Now, an ACC member told ANI that the hosting nation of Asia Cup 2020 would be decided possibly in the upcoming ACC meeting. This meeting will be organised soon.
That ACC member claimed, “ACC will be meeting soon. Once we meet, we will be in a position to make an official announcement where this edition of the Asia Cup will be held. Before that, I am not in a position to make any comment on it. I don’t want to say it is finalised or not but what I can tell you is that I am not in a position to make any comment on the Asia Cup.”
Asia Cup 2020 will be played in the T20I format. While it will be the 15th edition of this tournament, it will also be the second edition of Asia Cup T20. The tournament is most likely to be played in September 2020, around a month before the beginning of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020. India will feature in the Asia Cup 2020 as the defending champions. Apart from the five ICC Full Members from Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan), one more team will be added in the upcoming Asia Cup 2020 through the qualifiers.
On the other hand, Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 between 18th October and 15th November 2020.