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Asia Cup 2023: Pakistan will host a 50-over tournament with the ACC continuing its tradition of holding the tournament in the same format as that particular year’s ICC global event, PCB chairman Ramiz Raja spoke on Monday. However, the former Pakistan captain also left enough hints that there is very little chance of having a bilateral series against India in near future as a lot of work still needs to be done to reach a comfortable level.
Ramiz Raja recently attended the Asian Cricket Council meeting in Dubai where he discussed the formats of the Asia Cup and also had a meeting with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah. The ACC has agreed and approved that the 2023 event in Pakistan will be a 50-over competition and will be held in September. This aligns very nicely with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, which will be held in October and November (in India), Raja told PCB’s official website.
While Raja confirmed that the tournament will be held in Pakistan, the chances of India visiting the neighboring nation is next to nil if the current political climate persists, which is most probably going to happen. In that case one can expect that like in 2018, the tournament will be shifted to Dubai.
We are looking forward to hosting this tournament in Pakistan and I am confident it will be a well-organized event because this is what the fans want. “The ACC has also confirmed next year’s tournament in Sri Lanka will be played on a 20-over format and will be a prelude to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in Australia from 16 October to 13 November, Raja added.
On his meeting with the BCCI officials, Raja said: "A lot of work needs to be done to revitalize Pakistan-India cricket but there needs to be some comfort level between the two boards and then we can see how far we can go. So overall, we had a good discussion."
"I met with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ACC meetings. We need to create a cricketing bond, while I have also believed that politics should stay away from the sport as much as possible and this has always been our stance," he reiterated.
Raja understands that Asian Cricket Council as a body has no power to dictate terms to a giant like BCCI and thats the reason he sounded a word of caution for the continental body, He knew that there could be a shift to the Asia Cup by the time 2023 arrives.
"The ACC was set up to create a unified approach and collective stance so that we had one voice and if there was a situation, all stood together.
I would like to see our relationship with other boards and the ACC to be strong so that if there is an issue like we had with the withdrawal of a couple of sides, a strong and joint statement could come out from the ACC platform.
My message at the ACC was that we should not forget this philosophy and I am optimistic there will be better outcomes in future," he concluded.
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