Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday announced the cancellation of the Asia Cup T20 tournament, which was scheduled to be held in September.
The event, which had Pakistan as original hosts, was scheduled for September with the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka frontrunners to stage the tournament.
“The Asia Cup, which was to be held in September, has been cancelled),” Ganguly told ‘sports tak’ in an Instagram live session.
With T20 World Cup in October-November also unlikely to go ahead in Australia due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Asia Cup’s cancellation allows the BCCI to have a full-fledged Indian Premier League in the same window.
Ganguly’s statement comes after Pakistan Cricket Board chief executive Wasim Khan said last month the Asia Cup would go ahead as scheduled in either Sri Lanka or the UAE.
The tournament was not to be held in Pakistan due to India’s refusal to tour the country over political tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Earlier in May, the executive board of the Asian Cricket Council deferred a decision on the fate of the Asia Cup T20 tournament amid speculation that it might be postponed due to the coronaviruspandemic. It is understood that the ACC was waiting for ICC’s decision on the T20 World Cup in Australia before taking a call on the Asia Cup.
PCB chief Ehsan Mani later told Sportstar on Wednesday that he was still awaiting a response from ACC about the T20 tournament.
“We are still waiting for the ACC to come back to us,” said Mani.
“They are making inquiries about certain (things). Maybe, Sourav knows something that I don’t know. That’s possible. But we have not heard anything from the ACC, so I can’t comment on that,” he added.
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(With PTI and AFP inputs)