 The next version of the Asia Cup will be played next year in the month
of June. This was announced by the Asian Cricket Council, and it has been said
that the tournament will be contested by four teams only. These four sides are
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The venue
for the tournament has not been announced, but it remains to be seen if the ACC
has many viable options remaining for the hosting of the tournament, what with
both India and Pakistan not amenable to touring the other country.
The CEO of the ACC Syed Ashraful Huq said that while it was not easy
finding a finding a window for the tournament, the different cricket boards
were reasonably understanding and decided to play the tournament in the month
of June. The tournament will be played from 15th June to 25th June next year,
and will have seven games being played. This will have six games in the round-robin
stage, and a final that will be played between the top two sides of the tournament.
A total of nine editions of Asia Cup have been played so far, with both India
and Sri Lanka having won four tournaments each. In the previous such tournament
held in Sri Lanka last year, India was beaten by the hosts thanks to a stupendous
bowling performance by the then-unknown Ajantha Mendis. Mendis had ended
with figures of 6/13, his best ever in ODIs, as the Indians had capitulated
to 173 all out from 76/1 at one stage.
The tournament had then seen six countries participate in it, with the likes
of UAE and Hong Kong also playing in the tournament. Bangladesh, UAE and Sri
Lanka were in the first group, and India, Pakistan and Hong Kong belonged to
the second group. India had beaten Pakistan in the first round game and despite
losing to them in the second round, managed to enter the finals by beating the
finals. However, they lost in the finals.
This time around, there was a strong possibility that Afghanistan could have
played around in the series thanks to their qualification as an ODI side, after
they finished fifth in the World Cricket League and narrowly missed out on the
World Cup. But they, along with Scotland became the fifth and the sixth sides
to be still eligible to play the ODI cricket as top six sides in the world apart
from the top ten test playing nations get to play ODIs.
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