The ACC Asia Cup 2022 was all set to take place in Sri Lanka, but has been shifted from the island nation to the United Arab Emirates following the political and economic stability in the region. It must be noted that despite losing to host the event, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will remain its host.
SLC has opened up about letting go of the opportunity to host the upcoming version of Asia Cup. It says although everything was pre-planned but they have no option but to obey what the council orders. SLC finds it appropriate to shift the tournament to UAE despite massive willingness to witness it in its own country.
However, this was not the only reason since SLC has reckoned a big thing. According to them, several security and logistical problems in the country were not favouring hosting Asia Cup 2022. Although they got green signals from their government, but ACC’s decision contradicted.
As reported by ESPN, one of the SLC officials narrated,
“They felt that the situation in Sri Lanka was not conducive to garner the confidence of the stakeholders. Not only the member countries, but a tournament of this magnitude requires other stakeholders, like the broadcasters, sponsors, etc. What they felt was that the negative publicity shown all over the world, with the petrol queues and all that, didn’t help our cause,”
“Sponsors were finding it difficult to get insured, and the security clearance for broadcast crews to enter Sri Lanka was also an issue. The delegates who wanted to come from the other countries also weren’t prepared to come,”
The Asia Cup will now take place in the UAE from August 27th to September 11th. The multi-team tournament will feature already qualified Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, and one from UAE, Singapore, Kuwait, or Hong Kong will join them on winning the qualifying round.
