Sri Lanka Cricket Prepared to Host Asia Cup at Short Notice: Report

With the uncertainty over the venue of Asia Cup 2023 continuing,  Sri Lanka Cricket has reportedly said it’s prepared to host the tournament should the need arise. Pakistan has the hosting rights to host the event but BCCI is unwilling to send its team to the country citing denial of permission from the Indian government.

The Pakistan Cricket Board went from threatening to boycott the ODI World Cup  initially should India not travel to the country for Asia Cup to proposing a hybrid model.

However, PCB’s suggestion may be rejected because of logistical challenges that will arrive. As per the proposal, India will be playing their matches of the Asia Cup at a neutral venue barring other participants who will play in Pakistan.

A decision on the future of the tournament which will be played in one-day format considering the ODI World Cup later this year, is expected to be taken in the coming few days.

“The SLC is prepared to host the Asia Cup at a short notice. The decision now is up to the ACC,” Cricbuzz quoted a top SLC official as saying.

“We will go with the BCCI,” the official added.

BCCI had invited the presidents of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka cricket boards for the IPL 2023 final held on Monday.

“The future of the Asia Cup 2023 will be decided once we have a meeting with the ACC members (Test playing nations) and the Associate nations,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah had said.

“Emergent ACC meeting likely in next 7-10 days. In person or virtual but a meeting is likely to be called where views of other members of the ACC on Asia Cup will also be shared and discussed,” he added.

CricketNext had reported that the hybrid model involves logistics and financial planning and involve a lot of travelling. Additionally, the broadcasters will have to arrange two set of crews.

“It’s not that difficult to understand the feasibility. It’s an ODI match. Will start at 1:30 pm and end around 9:30 pm in the night and then teams will have to travel to another country. ACC members will talk and decide on the feasibility of that,” a senior official told CricketNext.