Asia Cup 2023 will be played in Pakistan, confirms PCB chief Ramiz Raja

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will host the 2023 Asia Cup, which will be played in the 50-over format, confirmed the newly-elected chairman Ramiz Raja. The decision was taken unanimously by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) held in Dubai on October 15.

The meeting was chaired by BCCI secretary Jay Shah and as reported by Cricbuzz, it was acknowledged that it was PCB's turn to host the event, not at a neutral venue but in Pakistan only.

The postponed T20 Asia Cup will be played in 2022 in Sri Lanka, ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November, while the 50-over tournament next year will be played as a precursor to the ICC Cricket World Cup in India.

Pakistan hasn't hosted a multi-nation event since the 2008 Asia Cup as teams from around the world stopped touring the nation after the 2009 attacks on the Sri Lankan team. Recently, New Zealand and England too had pulled out of their bilateral series supposed to take place in Pakistan at the last minute owing to security concerns.

Pakistan were the hosts for the 15th edition of the tournament but BCCI had expressed their concerns over sending their team to Pakistan and had requested t hist the event in UAE but COVID-19 postponed the tournament to 2021 and then to 2022 and Sri Lanka was named the new hots for the T20 tournament.

But, the 16th edition will be played in Pakistan, which will come as a huge relief to the board and the fans in Pakistan after the disappointment of the cancellation of two tours recently.