POBNEWS24,Dhaka Aug 26, 2022 : After much uncertainty and speculation, finally after four years, the 15th edition of Asia Cup cricket, the tournament of excellence in Asia, will be unveiled on Saturday, August 27. The last Asia Cup was held in UAE in 2018. The 15th Asia Cup was scheduled to be held in 2020 after 2018. But at the end of 2019, when the corona epidemic started, the 2020 season was cancelled.
The Asia Cup was scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in 2021. The Asia Cup was also canceled that year as the effects of Corona continued. As the Asia Cup has been canceled for two years in a row, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) held a discussion on this tournament in October 2021. After the discussion, ACC announced that the Asia Cup will be held in Sri Lanka in 2022. And in 2023, the 16th edition of the Asia Cup will be held in Pakistan.
According to the ACC announcement, Sri Lanka was supposed to host the Asia Cup this month. But Sri Lanka’s political and economic situation stood in the way. The mass protests created a crisis in the country, making it impossible to host the Asia Cup. So Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was forced to withdraw from hosting the Asia Cup at home. Later last month it was decided that the 15th edition of the Asia Cup will be held in the United Arab Emirates. However, Sri Lanka will have the right to host.
SLC will get at least $6.5 million as the host. As per ACC rules, this amount will be considered as ‘Hosting Fee’. Keeping in mind the T20 World Cup in Australia next October, the 15th edition of the Asia Cup has been organized in the T20 format. So that the participating teams can prepare themselves for the World Cup. Earlier in 2016, the tournament was held in Bangladesh in T20 format. The rest of the matches were played in ODI format.
In this year’s event, four teams from Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates participated in the qualifying round before the main round. The selection phase has already ended. Hong Kong will play in the main stage as the best team in the qualifiers. There are two groups in the main phase. Group ‘A’ will feature defending champions India, Pakistan and qualifiers Hong Kong. Group ‘B’ has Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. At the end of the group stage, the top four teams will be followed by the Super Four stage. The best two teams of Super Four will play in the final.
Sri Lanka-Afghanistan will take the field on the first day of the season at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The final will be held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on September 11. The main stage will have 13 matches in Sharjah and Dubai. Only 3 matches have been held in Sharjah. The rest are in Dubai. So far India has won Asia Cup the most 7 times. Sri Lanka has tasted the second highest title five times. Despite reaching the final three times, Bangladesh could not taste the title even once. Pakistan has become the champion twice.
