At a meeting in Bahrain on Saturday, it was determined that the members will continue "constructive communication" over the hosting of the Asia Cup
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The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has postponed the Asia Cup decision. At a meeting in Bahrain on Saturday, it was determined that the members will continue “constructive communication” over the hosting of the Asia Cup, which is slated for August-September this year, and finalise the venue at a meeting next month. The location of the continental tournament has become a contentious topic after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stated unequivocally that the Indian team would not travel to Pakistan, which had been awarded the hosting rights.
The overall consensus at the Bahrain summit was that the India-Pakistan diplomatic crisis should not be allowed to influence ACC concerns, but in practice, the matter proved difficult for the members to negotiate. Current and past PCB executives have stated that if the Indian squad does not participate in the Asia Cup, they will boycott the event as well as the World Cup in October-November in India. In this context, the interaction between BCCI secretary Jay Shah and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi was a subplot of the Bahrain conference.
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The BCCI is thought to have pushed on moving the tournament in order for the Indian team to participate, with the PCB keeping hosting rights, a formula that was adopted for last year’s Asia Cup, which was hosted in the UAE with the BCCI as designated hosts. For the record, according to the ACC in a statement, “The ACC held a fruitful discussion about the upcoming Asia Cup 2023. The Board agreed to continue negotiations on operations, timelines, and any other specifics in order to assure the tournament’s success. The next ACC Executive Board Meeting, scheduled for March 2023, will provide an update on the situation.”
The upcoming Asia Cup, which will be an ODI tournament amongst continental sides, has been a source of tension, with the BCCI and the PCB at differences over the venue. The PCB was assigned the August-September championship, however because to political tensions between India and Pakistan, the BCCI declared that the Indian squad would be unable to travel to Pakistan. Former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja threatened to boycott the World Cup in India later that year, which fueled the BCCI’s reluctance. Najam Sethi, who followed Raja, appears to have taken a similar stance, although there appears to be little sympathy for the PCB position among other ACC members.
