Asia Cup 2023: Will PCB quit ACC if it is not allowed to host 4 first-round games?
Asia Cup 2023: The host nation remains undecided. While original host PCB has demanded that it hosts at least four first-round contests, it has threatened that failing to do so might see it moving out of ACC.
FollowIn a desperate bid to host some matches of the 2023 Asia Cup in Pakistan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is now trying to convince the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to allocate just four first-round games in Pakistan, or else it would have no option but to pull out of the continental body.
PCB chairman Najam Srthi's 'Hybrid Model' of Pakistan playing its home games, apart from India's encounter in their own country, has been rejected by other member nations. PCB, in turn, has rejected the idea of hosting Asia Cup games in Sri Lanka. "Yes, Najam Sethi, as part of the plan B of the hybrid model proposed by us for the Asia Cup, has informed the ACC this week in Dubai that PCB would be satisfied hosting four games at home," a reliable source close to the cricket board said.
He said Sethi had also conveyed to the ACC in Dubai that if even this plan B of the PCB was rejected by ACC members, Pakistan would neither play in the Asia Cup nor stay a member of the ACC. According to the source, Sethi proposed a Pakistan versus Nepal match and Afghanistan versus Bangladesh, Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh matches in Pakistan.
The source also added that Sethi had told the ACC officials that PCB would be happy to play most of its remaining matches in Dubai, and the tournament's majority of games can be held in Dubai, including the final. "The one challenge now facing the ACC and us as hosts are that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India are insisting the event shouldn't be held in UAE in September as the weather is sweltering," the source said.
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"In the recent past, BCCI has organized the entire [half] of IPL in UAE between September and November [in 2021] while the last two Asia Cups have also been held in UAE during the same period," the PCB source reminded.
