While Pakistan has the right to host the Asia Cup 2020, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is reportedly not willing to send the national team in this tour. Before the upcoming meeting to re-discuss about the host nation of the Asia Cup 2020, Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has reportedly clarified about their probable action. And it is not good news for India.
Ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia, the top six Asian teams will meet in the Asia Cup 2020. While the T20 World Cup 2020 will run between 18th October and 15th November 2020, the Asia Cup 2020 is likely to be held in September 2020.
Pakistan has the hosting right for Asia Cup 2020
The upcoming Asia Cup will be in the T20I format, and Pakistan has been awarded to host this tournament. However, the major issue of this tournament is that the Indian team is most likely to not travel in Pakistan. The ACC will meet in February to discuss this issue while the BCCI is expecting the change of the host nation for this forthcoming tournament.
However, the ACC has reportedly clarified that only Pakistan can take the ultimate decision about altering the host nation of the upcoming Asia Cup.
According to ANI, an ACC source claimed, “ACC will have a meeting sometime in February to discuss issues related to the hosting of the Asia Cup this year. This year Pakistan is the host so it is Pakistan’s call if they want to host the tournament or not.”
There is no doubt that India and Pakistan are the two big teams of this tournament. Without one of these teams, the tournament can lose its shine. Also, the record seven times Asia Cup winner India won the last Asia Cup T20 (2016) as well as the last Asia Cup tournament (2018 in ODI format).
India last played in Pakistan in 2008
Since 2008, India haven’t played an international match in Pakistan. After the Sri Lankan team bus attack in Lahore in 2009, Pakistan has hugely struggled to organise international cricket. Though the limited-overs international cricket matches re-started in that country in 2015, the country only managed to organise a Test match last December. Still, the big cricket teams are not interested in travel to Pakistan immediately.
Apart from this security issue, the two countries have political tensions for a long time. Since January 2013, they haven’t played a bilateral series in international cricket yet. India and Pakistan currently meet only in ICC and ACC tournaments.