Daily Times

LAHORE: The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Tuesday accepted Pakistan’s reservations against playing in India and decided to move the Asia Cup 2018 to United Arab Emirates. The tournament, originally slated to be held in India, will be played between September 13 and 28 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Political tensions between India and Pakistan have been cited as the reason for the change. Due to tense relations between the neighbours, India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since January 2013, but they continue to clash in ICC tournaments. This will be the 14th edition of the Asia Cup. The first 12 were staged as ODI competitions, while the previous Asia Cup in 2016 was the first to be held as a T20I event, effectively as a warm-up event ahead of the World T20. India are the defending champions, having beaten Bangladesh in the final two years ago.

The decision to shift the Asia Cup to UAE was taken in the annual session of the ACC at meeting at Kuala Lumpur, chaired by its president and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi after Pakistan objected to playing in India. Sethi, along with PCB CEO Subhan Ahmed, also represented Pakistan in the session where it was also decided that five full members – Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – would automatically qualify to play in the Asia Cup while Hong Kong, Malaysia, Oman, Nepal, Singapore and the UAE would play the qualifiers for the sixth slot.

“The ACC deliberated on the matter and decided that this was the best way forward,” Sethi was quoted as saying yesterday. The meeting also decided that ACC Emerging Teams Cup 2018 would be co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka this year. “All decisions were unanimous. All participants agreed to support the return of international cricket to Pakistan subject to certain constraints. That’s why the ACC Annual General Meeting will he held in Lahore and the BCCI has pledged to participate in it like all other ACC members. That’s why a number of matches of the Emerging Asia Cup will be played in Pakistan,” Sethi added. The 2018 Emerging Teams’ Asia Cup was originally slated for April, the tournament has been moved to December. Pakistan will also play host to the next ACC Annual General Meeting, which will be held later this year.

Published in Daily Times, April 11^th 2018.