The Asia Cup 2022 is anticipated to be held in the United Arab Emirates from August 24 to September 10, instead of Sri Lanka. “Asia Cup will be in UAE, as it is the only place where there won’t be rain,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly confirmed to reporters after the Board’s Apex Council meeting on Thursday.
The tournament will be played in the T20 format. It will be a warm up as the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 is set to unveil its curtain in Australia in October this year.
Asia Cup 2022 was supposed to be held in Sri Lanka. However, due to the country’s current economic and political crisis, the Sri Lanka Cricket Board stated that it would be unable to host the prestigious Asia Cup T20. Recently, the board also postponed the third season of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) for the same reason.
Notably, the tournament had already been delayed twice, once in 2020 due to Covid-19 and then again last year. Finally, the event is expected to open this year on August 24 with the qualifying round and run until September 10 or 11. Six teams— India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and one qualifier— will compete in the tournament.
However, Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC) will remain the official host of the Asia Cup 2022. The Lanka Board, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), and the Board and government of the United Arab Emirates will make a deal to finalize the event’s procedures soon.