The Asian Cricket Council on March 19 confirmed the window, format and host country for the forthcoming edition of the Asia Cup. The tournament will be held between August 27 to September 11 in Sri Lanka in the T20I version.
Six teams will take part in the premier regional tournament, with Test-playing countries India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan being given a direct bye to the competition where they will be joined by a qualifying side.
The qualifying side will be determined through a pre-tournament qualifying competition, starting August 20. UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong will be contesting for one slot in the main event that begins only a week later. These four association members made the cut for the final qualifier after finishing on top of the Eastern and the Western regional ACC events back in 2020.
Specific venues, dates and tournament format are not yet out for Asia Cup 2022, but Sri Lanka’s R Premadasa Stadium seems likely to host the marquee games, including the final. The tournament is expected to be played along similar lines to how the ODI version was held in 2018 in the UAE.
Six teams will be divided into two groups of three each, with the top two from the respective group making the cut for Super 4, where a single round-robin will be held to determine the two finalists.
The last time the Asia Cup was held in the T20I version in 2016, a five-team single round-robin was held before the final. But the six-team format is understood to be the preferred version for broadcasters and sponsors as it raises the likelihood of multiple India-Pakistan matches.
Back in 2018, India and Pakistan were placed in one group along with Hong Kong and faced each other twice in Dubai. A similar scenario looks in the offing as fans crave more Indo-Pak games amidst political tensions between the two Asian countries.
The Asia Cup couldn’t be held in 2020 because of the first wave of the pandemic and had one further postponement the following year due to the clouded calendar for the member nations. But Sri Lanka retained its hosting rights for the competition to be held in the T20I version so as to partly enable teams’ preparations for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November.
The regional tournament alternates between ODI and T20I formats depending on which version of the World Cup is looming. Pakistan are set to host the 50-over Asia Cup in 2023 in the build-up to the ICC ODI World Cup in India in October-November.
India are the defending champions of the T20I version, having enjoyed a winning run in Bangladesh back in 2016 ahead of their home T20 World Cup. They are also the most successful side in the history of Asia Cups with seven titles, including six in the ODI format.
There were a couple of other major decisions taken at ACC’s Annual General Meeting. It was unanimously decided by the member nations that Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, will remain the ACC president till 2024. Oman Cricket Board official Pankaj Khimji was appointed the vice-president of ACC, whose developing committee will now be under the chairmanship of Malaysia Cricket Association’s Mahinda Vallipuram.
“We remain committed towards ensuring the all-round development of cricket in the region, especially carrying forward the pioneering work in women’s cricket and the multiple grassroot tournaments the ACC conducts in the region around the year.
The pandemic hopefully is behind us and I am keen that we adapt, innovate and help the ACC grow from strength to strength from hereon,”
Shah was quoted as saying at the AGM.
