Asia Cup 2018 will be held in UAE

Asia cup is just a few months away, but the biggest news that came out today was that UAE is set to host Asia Cup 2018 instead of India.

The tournament will be held between 13th to 28th September this year, confirmed by Asia Cricket Council (ACC) during a meeting held at their Kuala Lumpur headquarters.   

BCCI officials confirmed that they asked ACC to change the venue as Indian Government hasn’t responded to their request to host Asia Cup with involvement of Pakistan.

BCCI can only host Pakistan in ICC events as per their contract with Indian Government, since Asia Cup is organised by ACC, they cannot host Pakistan for this tournament.

“Since this is not World Cup, Champions Trophy or World T20I, it was a foregone conclusion that the government would not approve BCCI hosting Pakistan in prevailing circumstances. The public sentiment needs to be respected.” a senior BCCI official said on terms of anonymity.  

“UAE will be facilitating the organization but all the other modalities remain same. The Star Sports will be broadcasting the tournament and the gate money (collection from tickets and in stadia) will be BCCI’s. Obviously BCCI will be paying the Emirates Cricket Board a facilitation fee.” the official further informed.

BCCI has also requested ACC to move the venue of Emerging Nation’s Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan in December. Both the boards of India and Bangladesh have said that they will not send their teams to Pakistan for this tournament.

Pakistan had got hosting rights for the Asian Emerging Nations Cup when an ACC meeting was held in Lahore last October but delegates from India and Bangladesh didn’t come for the meeting.

India will take on Pakistan on similar territories as they used to in 90’s at Sharjah where Sachin Tendulkar made name of himself, when he used to demolish Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram to all parts of the ground.

Although this time around matches will be only played in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, this also gives opportunity to all cricket fans in UAE from all countries so it makes this change more logistical.

Since India’s defeat to Pakistan in Champions Trophy final last year, Indian skipper Virat Kohli will be eager to make amends and win his first major trophy.