Sri Lanka to host Asia Cup T20 tournament from Aug 27 to Sept 11

Sri Lanka will host the Asia Cup T20 tournament from August 27 to September 11, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced on Saturday after its annual general meeting here.

All five Test teams of the continent — India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and hosts Sri Lanka — will feature in the tournament, along with one more Asian side that will be decided after a qualifier tournament which will be held from August 20.

“The Asia Cup 2022 (T20 Format) will be held in Sri Lanka from 27 August – 11 September later this year. The Qualifiers for the same will be played 20 August 2022 onwards,” the ACC tweeted after its AGM.

The tournament, that usually alternates between ODI and T20I formats, was last played in 2018 and won by India. The COVID-19 pandemic had forced the postponement of the 2020 edition.

Sri Lanka were supposed to host the 2020 edition, but the pandemic first pushed the event to 2021 before finally being moved to 2022. Pakistan, who were originally supposed to host the 2022 Asia Cup, now have the hosting rights for 2023.

The sixth team to join the tournament will be one of UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong. UAE and Kuwait had made it to the qualifiers after finishing first and second in the ACC Western region event in 2020 while Singapore and Hong Kong did the same from the eastern region.