The Asia Cup or ACC is a men’s One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket tournament. It was established in 1983 when the Asian Cricket Council was founded as a measure to promote goodwill between Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years.
The first Asia cup was held in 1984 in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates where the council’s offices were based. It was played on a round-robin format and the team who won most matches in the only round was declared the winner. India won the match and former Indian Skipper Sunil Gavaskar lifted first-ever Asia Cup trophy. Only three countries including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka took part in it.
The ICC has ruled that all games played in the Asia Cup have official ODI status. After downsizing the Asian Cricket Council in 2015, it was announced by the ICC that Asia Cup events from 2016 would be played on a rotation basis between One Day International and Twenty20 International format, on the basis of the format of the upcoming world events.
As a result, the 2016 event was the first played in the T20I format and functioned as a preparatory tournament ahead of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. The 2016 Asia cup was hosted by Bangladesh. Afghanistan appeared in Asia Cup for the first time in 2014.
India, with seven titles (six ODI and one T20), is the most successful team in the tournament. Sri Lanka is the second most successful team, with five. Sri Lanka has played the most Asia Cups (14) followed by India and Pakistan who have played 13 each.
Muttiah Muralitharan is the most successful bowler of Asia Cup as he is the leading wicket-taker in Asia Cup and Murali got 30 wickets in his entire Asia Cup career.
The 2020 Asia Cup was scheduled to be the 15th edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament. It was scheduled to be held in September 2020. However, in July 2020, the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the next edition is to take place in June 2021, with Sri Lanka hosting the competition.
In January 2020, various news outlets reported that Pakistan would not be hosting the Asia Cup due to the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan.
On 28 February 2020, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly stated that “the Asia Cup will be held in Delhi and both India and Pakistan will play.” Ehsan Mani contradicted Ganguly’s statement saying that the venue is not yet decided. On 7 March 2020, Ehsan Mani said that the tournament would happen in a neutral place and the following month he said that it won’t happen at all due the pandemic.
In June 2020, a meeting with the ACC and the PCB said that they would be willing to let Sri Lanka host it. On 8 July 2020, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly said it has been canceled although no official confirmation has been made by the Asian Cricket Council. The following day, it was officially postponed.
