Asia Cup 2022 is in grave danger to be moved out of Sri Lanka due to political unrest in the country, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
The tournament is originally scheduled to be played in Sri Lanka August this year. However, at the moment, the island nation of 22 million people has been hit by worst ever financial crisis, which has resulted prolonged power cuts, with drugs, fuel and other items running short, bringing angry protesters out on the streets and putting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under mounting pressure.
Anti-government protests have raged across the island for days, which have hurt the lucrative tourism industry that was ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, a new central bank governor raised interest rates by an unprecedented 700 basis points in a bid to tame rocketing inflation and stabilise the economy, as the country looks to regain access to international financial markets after being locked out due to multiple ratings downgrades since 2020.
The political uncertainty in the Island is a cause of concern for International Cricket Council (ICC) also. The governing body has always maintained that the game must be politics free.
“ICC is known for taking stern action against any kind of political interference in the game in any of cricket playing nation. As we saw in Zimbabwe, ICC stops funding and recognizing the Cricket Board, if it get hijacked by outside Influence” a Cricket Expert In Sri Lanka told Cricket Age.
