The Asia Cup 2020, scheduled to be staged in September this year, will be hosted by the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), subject to the government approval, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the original host of the tournament, on Monday agreed to handover it to it’s counterpart after considering all the factors, during the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting via video conferencing. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief, Sourav Ganguly, and secretary Jay Shah attended the meeting — which was chaired by Bangladesh Cricket Board chief, Nazmul Hasan Papon.
“After discussing the proposal at board ExCo meeting prior to the ACC meeting today, we offered PCB of hosting the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. As both the cricket board shares a close bonding, the PCB gleefully agreed to handover Asia Cup to Sri Lanka” a top SLC administrator told Cricket Age.
However, for hosting the tournament, the SLC needs the government approval, following the just lifted Lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Fortunately, Sri Lanka is one of the least affected country by the deadly virus and the government successfully kept Covid positive cases as low as 1200, with only 10 deaths.
“We will go ahead with the Asia Cup only after getting government approval. Fortunately, the country is already started to return towards normalcy after two months long lockdown” the top administrator added.
Importantly, the SlC has already secured government 70% approval in organizing the Lanka Premier League (LPL) in August, that gives the board an opportunity to go ahead with the Asia Cup as well.
“We are confident to organize the LPL in August. It will be followed by the Asia Cup and India tour most probably. It will give Sri Lanka cricket a big financial boost in a year, which is marred by pandemic crisis. Certainly it’s a big achievement of SLC to successfully secured Asia Cup” the top administrator concluded.
The hosting rights to the continental tournament lie with the PCB, which was expected to agree to stage the event in Dubai due to India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan. The ACC, in a meeting in March, was expected to rule on the situation but the COVID-19 pandemic had the meeting postponed and the matter was in a limbo ever since.
The Asia Cup 2020 was already marred by enough controversies before the pandemic with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) stating their refusal of sending the Indian team citing security concerns.
With the threat of coronavirus was hovering above the Asia Cup 2020 as well as the T20 World Cup, it was reported in late April that BCCI are contemplating to either host bilateral series or the now-postponed Indian Premier League 2020 (IPL 2020) season during the window. However, PCB chairman Ehsan Mani had asserted during the same month that they will not agree to cancel Asia Cup 2020 in favour of the IPL 2020.
