The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on Tuesday accepted Pakistan’s reservations against playing in India and decided to shift the Asia Cup 2018 to United Arab Emirates.
The decision was taken in the annual session of the ACC chaired by its president and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi after Pakistan objected to playing in India.
Sethi, along with PCB CEO Subhan Ahmed, also represented Pakistan in the session which also decided that five full members — Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — would automatically qualify to play in the cup while Hong Kong, Malaysia, Oman, Nepal, Singapore and the hosts UAE would play the qualifiers for the sixth slot.
The meeting also decided that ACC Emerging Teams Cup 2018 would be co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka this year.
The Asia Cup 2018 — likely to be played between September 13 to 28 — would be the 14th edition of the tournament, with India playing as its defending champions.
Due to tense relations between the neighbours, India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since January 2013, but they continue to play matches in ICC tournaments.
