ACC announces dates and venue for Asia Cup 2022

The dates for the Asia Cup are finally out as the tournament has been slated to start from August 27th and will be continuing till September 11th of 2022. Much to everyone’s surprise, the fray’s format has been changed from a 50-over contest to T20. The qualifiers of the contest have been lined up from 20th August 2022.

The continental fray is held every two years but had to be called off in 2020 when Covid played a spoilsport as Asian Cricket Council (ACC) was compelled to resort to drastic measures. The apex cricketing authority in the continent tried hosting the event in 2021 but was once again denied by the pandemic’s second surge.

India’s domination in the continental rivalry still remains unparalleled as they won the trophy a staggering 7 times out of the 14 editions that it has been hosted. The years of India’s triumph encompass 1984, 1988, 1990/91, 1995, 2010, 2016, and 2018. The closest contender to India’s overwhelming numbers is Sri Lanka with five triumphs that came in 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008, and 2014.

Sri Lanka also has the highest number of Asia Cup appearances followed by the likes of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh who have starred in 13 editions of the tournament.

The fray that is lined up to be played in the latter half of the year will feature six teams. Five of them have already made the cut including the likes of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan while the sixth will be a qualifier. The qualifying tournament will be played between UAE and Kuwait, who reached the final round of qualifiers from the 2020 ACC Western Region while the two other teams will be Singapore and Hong Kong who enhanced from the 2020 ACC Eastern Region.

In another development, BCCI secretary Jay Shah’s term has been extended as the President of Asian Cricket Council as he will be at the helm of affairs till 2024.