Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja on Mondy said that the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has agreed to stage the 2023 Asia Cup in Pakistan while 2022 edition of the tournament will be held in Sri Lanka.
The PCB chairman said the 2023 ACC Cup in Pakistan would be a 50-over competition while the 2022 edition will be a 20-over tournament.
“The ACC has agreed and approved that the 2023 event in Pakistan will […] will be held in September. This aligns very nicely with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, which will be held in October and November. We are looking forward to hosting this tournament in Pakistan and I am confident it will be a well-organised event because this is what the fans want,” Raja said while speaking to PCB digital following.
“The ACC has also confirmed next year’s tournament in Sri Lanka will be played on a 20-over format and will be a prelude to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in Australia from 16 October to 13 November. The ACC was set up to create a unified approach and collective stance so that we had one voice and if there was a situation, all stood together. I would like to see our relationship with other boards and the ACC be strong so that if there is an issue like we had with the withdrawal of a couple of sides, a strong and joint statement could come out from the ACC platform,” he added.
Meanwhile, the PCB Chief also said that a lot of task is needed to be accomplished to revitalise bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan.
“I met with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ACC meetings. We need to create a cricketing bond, while I have also believed that politics should stay away from sports as much as possible and this has always been our stance,” Raja said.
“There needs to be some comfort level between the two boards and then we can see how far we can go,” he expresed adding that overall discussion held was quite good.
During the ACC meeting, Raja had also met representatives of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Emirates cricket boards.
Although the ACC is yet to officially announce the development but if Pakistan hosts the 2023 Asia Cup, it will be after a long gap of 17 years when Team India tours the neighbouring nation.
Earlier in the year 2018, the prestigious Asia Cup tournament was also played in the 50-over format while the Asia Cup 2020, which was scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Notably, due to the political relations between the two countries, India and Pakistan now only face each other in ICC events and Asia Cups.