Pakistan Cricket Board likely to lose hosting rights of Asia Cup 2023 – Reports
Jay Shah, India vs Pakistan (Image Credit: Twitter)
In the last few months, Jay Shah and Pakistan Cricket Board have been going at loggerheads over the Asia Cup 2023 venue. In October last year, The Indian Cricket Board secretary and Asian Cricket Council president Shah announced that this year’s continental tournament will be moved out of Pakistan. He cited non-permission from the Indian government for the Men In Blue’s visit to Pakistan.
After this, the erstwhile PCB chairperson, Ramiz Raja threatened to pull out of the ODI World Cup 2023 in India. Now, he has been replaced by Najam Sethi and he said that he would like to have a dialogue with his Indian counterparts over the matter. Recently, it was reported that both Sethi and Shah will meet each other in Bahrain on February 4.
Only a few hours are left in the meeting. Meanwhile, it is reported that the tournament might be moved to a neutral venue. As per an Indian Cricket Board official, the board will not change its stance. He added that the government hasn’t given them permission to travel to Pakistan.
“Jay is in Bahrain for the ACC meeting. The Indian Cricket Board’s stand will not change. We will not be travelling to Pakistan as we haven’t got any go-ahead from the government,” a BCCI source stated.
Pakistan is meant to host the Asia Cup after the 2008
Meanwhile, at this point, the Asian country is still the host of the tournament. The last time the Asia Cup was hosted by Pakistan was in 2008. A year later, due to a deadly attack on the visiting Sri Lanka side, international cricket took a pause till 2015. From 2015 to 2018, some teams traveled to Pakistan for a series or two. Since 2019, Pakistan has been able to host cricket in its homeland.
However, in recent times, the Asian country has been going through one of the worst economic crises in its 75-year history. This might also become the reason for the tournament to be moved out of Pakistan.
