LAHORE: A final decision on whether Pakistan will host the 2023 Asia Cup is now expected in March, after an Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Bahrain failed to reach a breakthrough. They will meet again in a month’s time, around the next set of ICC meetings. The uncertainty around the 2023 Asia Cup began in October when the ACC president, and BCCI secretary, Jay Shah said it will be held in a neutral venue because India can’t travel to Pakistan. The PCB took particular exception to that and its chief Najam Sethi told Shah that if India don’t play in Pakistan, Pakistan will consider not playing in India for the 2023 World Cup. This has led to the deadlock which needs revisiting in March when the ICC and ACC meetings take place one after the other. The issues across tournaments, in the PCB’s views, are the same, whether it is the Asia Cup, the 2023 World Cup or the 2025 Champions Trophy, to be staged in Pakistan. Depending on what happens in those March meetings — and the PCB is likely to go in again with the same stance — a decision may be left to the Pakistan government to take a call on. In addition, all ACC members are believed to have been asked to seek their own government’s positions on whether their teams can travel to Pakistan. After years of isolation following the 2009 attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore, Pakistan has returned to hosting international cricket regularly over the last three years, with nearly all full members (other than India) visiting the country for red- and white-ball cricket. Pakistan-India ties have deteriorated over the years as a result of stormy political relations between the two countries. India and Pakistan have not played each other in a bilateral series since 2012-13, when Pakistan toured India for a limited-overs series. Their encounters have been limited to ICC and ACC events, and while the Indian men’s team has not played any match in Pakistan since 2008, Pakistan last travelled to India for the 2016 T20 World Cup. The PCB is intent in its stance of hosting the 2023 Asia Cup with Sethi saying in January, “whatever the stance is, it will be according to the interests of Pakistan.” The ACC executive board also approved the inclusion of teams from Japan and Indonesia in the ACC pathway tournaments and ratified ACC’s calendar of activities for the financial years 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, India will not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup in 2023, raising questions as to where the tournament might now be held. The development occurred on the day of the BCCI’s annual general meeting in Mumbai, where BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who is also the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president, suggested that next year’s Asia Cup would have to be played at a different venue. India’s last trip to Pakistan was for the 2008 Asia Cup, while Pakistan’s last visit to India was for that 2016 ICC event. Due to strained political relations between the two countries, they have not played any bilateral cricket since Pakistan toured India for a white-ball only series in 2012-13. India and Pakistan last played each other at the 2022 Asia Cup in UAE in August-September this year, and are due to face off in the T20 World Cup in Melbourne on October 23.