Lahore
Cricket’s second-biggest saga of the calendar year, Asia Cup 2020, has been postponed until 2021, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced on Thursday.
The Executive Board of the ACC cited the novel coronavirus pandemic as the reason behind the tournament’s postponement.
“The Board was keen on organising the tournament as per the original schedule. However, travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, fundamental health risks and social distancing mandates have posed as substantial challenges to the holding of the Asia Cup,” the ACC said in a press release.
“Above all, the risks related to health and safety of participating players, support staff, commercial partners, fans and the cricketing community were deemed to be significant.”
“Accordingly, the Board, after careful consideration of all the above factors, has determined that the Asia Cup 2020 be postponed.”
The ACC statement comes just hours after the PCB denied BCCI President Saurav Ganguly’s claim that the Asia Cup had been postponed.
“The ACC and the Board is hopeful that the tournament will be held in 2021. The ACC is currently working towards securing June 2021 as a suitable window for the same,” the press release added.
It also confirmed that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had swapped the 2020 Asia Cup hosting right with Sri Lanka Cricket.
It means that the Asia Cup next year will be staged in Sri Lanka, whereas the hosting rights of the 2022 edition of the tournament are now PCB’s.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PCB had reportedly swapped the rights due to Indian board’s refusal to travel to Pakistan.
Moreover, Former Pakistani glovesman, Rashid Latif, has warned board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President, Sourav Ganguly, for showing ‘undue power’ after the latter’s statement on Asia Cup 2020’s cancellation, saying it was the Asian Cricket Council’s call.
The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Nazmul Hasan was yet to comment on the issue. The event has been the subject of speculation for a long while due to the disruption of global events caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Whether the Asia Cup is canceled or not can be decided by the Asian Cricket Council. Showing undue power will only hurt Asian countries. Ganguly should pay attention to Indian cricket and IPL,” Latif tweeted as quoted by cricketpakistan.
Ganguly had earlier claimed that the Asia Cup 2020 had been cancelled while speaking on sports Tak.
“In December, we have the first full series. Asia Cup 2020 has been called-off which was scheduled to take place in September,” Sourav Ganguly told Vikrant Gupta on a live Instagram chat. Asia Cup 2020 has been cancelled,” he added.
Pakistan was originally expected to host the event in September while speculations ran rampant that the tournament might be moved to Sri Lanka due to COVID-19.
The Indian Premier League (IPL), which has been indefinitely postponed, might be the biggest reason why the BCCI would look to cancel the major event in order to free up a window in their global Calendar however an official final decision is still pending, on the matter.—APP
