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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Saturday, 4 July 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
The Asia Cup 2020 limited-over cricket tournament was postponed to June 2021, and Sri Lanka were granted the rights to host it by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) when they held a one-hour teleconference amongst its members via Zoom yesterday.
Sri Lanka who was represented by Sri Lanka Cricket President Shammi Silva said that the right to host the tournament was confirmed at this meeting.
The tournament was to be hosted by Pakistan in September but India’s reluctance to visit Pakistan resulted in the ACC looking for a neutral venue to stage the tournament.
Sri Lanka and UAE were the favoured venues however the Pakistan Cricket Board at the last ACC meeting held in June offered it to Sri Lanka to host the Asia Cup.
Apart from the tournament venue, the advent of COVID-19 also had its impact on the tournament with several countries unwilling to tour and thereby forcing the ACC to postpone it by a year to 2021. Sri Lanka last hosted the Asia Cup in 2010, and out of the 14 editions that have been hosted, Sri Lanka has hosted on four occasions, the other years being in 1986, 1997 and 2004.
Six countries are due to take part in the Asia Cup 2021 – reigning champs India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and one qualifier. Meanwhile Sri Lanka domestic cricket which was halted by the outbreak of COVID-19 in March is set to resume on 14 July.
SLC President Shammi Silva said that they have received the green light from the Health Ministry and the Sports Ministry and the venues cleared to play the matches.
The matches will resume with the Premier League Super Eight and Tier B matches.
The eight teams qualified to play in the Super Eight are: CCC, Colts, Army and BRC from Group A, and Chilaw Marians, NCC, Saracens and Ragama from Group B.
