Asia Cup cricket tournament has been postponed due to the current outburst of coronavirus pandemic, announced the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Thursday. The tournament was supposed to be held in September this year. The executive board of ACC met couple of times to evaluate the impact of the global pandemic on this tournament and took a final call to postpone it.
“From the onset the Board was keen on organising the tournament as per the original schedule. However, travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, fundamental health risks and social distancing mandates have posed as substantial challenges to the holding of the Asia Cup,” Asian Cricket Council read in a statement.
“Above all, the risks related to health and safety of participating players, support staff, commercial partners, fans and the cricketing community were deemed to be significant. Accordingly, the Board, after careful consideration of all the above factors, has determined that the Asia Cup 2020 be postponed,” it added.
Having said that, ACC did sound hopeful about the tournament happening next year. “The ACC is currently working towards securing June 2021 as a suitable window for the same,” it said.
Pakistan was to originally host the Asia Cup this time, but due to security reasons, the same was to be held in Sri Lanka after the Sri Lanka Cricket expressed the willingness to host the same.
The official announcement follows the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s statement to an Indian news organisation about cancelling the tournament. Reacting to Ganguly’s statement, Media director of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Samiul Hasan Burney, had said on Thursday that the final decision on the matter wrested with the Asian Cricket Council.
Team India has been the most successful team in the history of the tournament and are defending champions, having won the last two tournaments.
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