Asia Cup 2016 likely to be played in the United Arab Emirates, says Source

Asia Cup 2016 likely to be played in the United Arab Emirates, says Source: The next edition of the Asia cup is more likely to be held in the UAE according to media reports, quoting reliable sources. While, no final decision was made about the host country, it is understood that UAE is the strongest candidate to host the biannual event.

PTI quoted a source in the PCB saying: “None of the Asian Test playing nations expressed interest in hosting the Asia Cup including India and Sri Lanka. So, the members decided the best possible option was UAE and a decision on the venue will be taken in the next one month,”

“The most important thing is that ACC (Asian Cricket Council) now no longer exists and its offices in Kuala Lumpur have been closed down,” the source said. “There will be only two people, one of them Sultan Rana of Pakistan and a finance officer, who will be based in Singapore, to coordinate Asian region cricket affairs for ICC,” he added.

The source also added that India had no reservations about playing in UAE having already hosted part of Indian Premier League (IPL) there in 2014. UAE is also likely to host the Masters Champions League, a T20 tournament that will prominently feature retired cricketers, and PCB’s own franchise based T20 tournament, PCL set to be launched early next year and scheduling three tournaments in the span of two months could very well bother the authorities.

Earlier in this year, ACC’s outgoing President, Syed Ashraful Haq had said that the tournament wished to revamp itself to allow greater participation and greater reach and influence. According to Haq, the tournament was likely to switch to Twenty20 format every alternate edition, however there have been no validations to his claim. Bangladesh hosted the previous two Asia Cups in 2012 and 2014 that was won by Sri Lanka and Pakistan respectively. The tournament was first played in 1984 and has since then been won by India and Sri Lanka for 5 times each.