16th ACC Men’s Cricket Asia Cup 2023 to commerce on 30 August

The 16th edition of the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Men’s Asia Cup in One Day International (ODI) format is set to commence on 30 August 2023 when Pakistan takes on Nepal at Multan in Pakistan .The Asia cup organsied by the ACC will be held from 30 August to 17 September 2023 in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

Pakistan and Sri Lanka will co host the 16th Asia Cup:

For the first time in the history of the men’s Asia cup the tournament will be co hosted by two countries. 

The 16th Asia cup was originally allotted to Pakistan but the Indian team refused to visit Pakistan citing security concerns . Finally, a compromise was worked out where the Indian team will play all its matches in Sri Lanka. Four matches will be played in Pakistan and 9 matches including  the semi finals and the finals will be played in Colombo, Sri Lanka .

Teams Participating in the 16th Asia Cup:

This time 6 teams are participating in the Asia cup . All the five members of the 

ACC ;India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh , Afghanistan  and Nepal are participating in the tournament .

This will be the first time that Nepal is participating in the Asia cup.  They qualified  for the Asia cup by winning the inaugural ACC Men’s Premier Cup 2023 held in Nepal . They defeated the United Arab Emirates team in the final by seven wickets.

Format of the 16th Asia Cup:

The six teams have been divided into two groups . 

Group A has India, Pakistan and Nepal. 

Group B consists of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan . 

Top two sides from each group will then qualify for the Super Four stage. The Super Four will be another round-robin series of games. The top two sides from there will qualify for the final, to be played on 17 September in Colombo.

Format of the Asia Cup:

Initially Asia cup was held in 50 overs One Day International (ODI) format but in 2015 ACC announced that Asia Cup events from 2016 would be played on a rotation basis between ODI  and Twenty20 format(T20), depending upon the format of upcoming world events. Last year the Asia Cup was held in T20 format due to the upcoming  ICC T 20 world cup 2022.

The 16th Asia cup will be held in ODI format as the ICC ODI World Cup 2023  is scheduled to be held in India in October-November 2023.

Successful team in the Asia Cup:

India is the most successful side in the tournament with seven titles (six ODI and one T20I) to their name. Sri Lanka comes in second place with six (five ODI and one T20I) titles. Pakistan has won the Asia Cup twice. 

Winners of the ACC men’s Asia Cup:

Asian Cricket Council (ACC):

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) was formed as the Asian Cricket Conference in New Delhi on the 19th of September 1983.  Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka were the founding members of ACC

In 1993 the Asian Cricket Conference was renamed as the Asian Cricket Council. 

Members of ACC:

At present  25 countries are the members of ACC with China joining it in 2004. .

The members are divided into Full members and Associate members 

Full members are ; ;India, Pakistan , Bangladesh, Afghanistan , Sri Lanka  , Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand and  UAE.

Associate Members ; Malaysia, Bahrain, Tajikistan, China ,Maldives, Mangolia, Bhutan ,Myanmar, Uzbekistan ,Oman,Qatar, Saudi Arabia,Iran 

Headquarters : In 2003 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was  made the permanent headquarters of the ACC.

Chairman: Jay Shah