Asia Cup 2020 postponed due to coronavirus pandemic

COLOMBO: This year’s Asia Cup tournament, which was supposed to be held in Pakistan in September, has been postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Asian Cricket Council announced.

The ACC took to Twitter and announced, “After careful consideration and evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Executive Board of the ACC has decided to postpone the Asia Cup tournament that was scheduled for September 2020.”

In a statement issued today (Thursday), the cricketing body said that the executive board met on multiple occasions to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the tournament.

The statement said, “The board was keen on organizing the tournament as per the original schedule. However, travel restrictions, country-specific quarantine requirements, fundamental health risks, and social distancing mandates have posed as substantial challenges to holding the tournament.”

“Above all, the risks related to the health and safety of participating players, support staff, commercial partners, fans, and the cricketing community were deemed to be significant,” it added.

The statement announced, “In this regard, the Asian Cricket Council’s Executive Board decided to postpone this year’s Asia Cup.”

“Conducting the event in a responsible manner remains the ACC’s priority and the board is hopeful that the tournament will be held in 2021,” the statement said.

However, the statement further informed that Sri Lanka will host the rescheduled event expected in June 2021 while Pakistan will host in the Cup in 2022.