Asian Cricket Council makes a decision to move the tournament from Sri Lanka to UAE.
Due to the ongoing political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has said that the United Arab Emirates will be hosting the Asia Cup 2022 tournament, which will start on August 27, 2022, and will continue till September 11, 2022.
Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC) will host the nine-team tournament- a reputable event- and help prepare the Asian sides for the Twenty20 World Cup later this year.
In the second Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia, which took place at Galle between 8 to 11 July, the fans witnessed protests by the invaders in the stadium, due to which the situation worsened, and ACC came to a decision to change the host country for the big tournament.
“Considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the ACC, after extensive deliberation, has unanimously concluded that it would be appropriate to relocate the tournament from Sri Lanka to UAE,” a release from the Asian Cricket Council read.
“Every effort was made to host the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the decision to shift the venue to the UAE was taken after much deliberation,” ACC president Jay Shah said in a statement.
“The UAE will be the new venue while Sri Lanka will continue to retain hosting rights. This edition of the Asia Cup is extremely important as it will help Asian nations prepare for the ICC World Cup.”
Six teams are to play this mega event the five being India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and the sixth is yet to be decided. The tournament will be played in a 20 over format which will later benefit the playing teams to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 post Asia Cup 2022.
