The 2023 Asia Cup will be held from August 31 and the final will be played on September 17, with the tournament set to be played in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced on Thursday.
As per the statement made by the ACC, the tournament will be hosted in a hybrid model with four games in Pakistan while the remaining nine games in Sri Lanka.
The ACC however, didn’t reveal the names of cities playing hosts of the continental tournament.
Notably, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and the winners of ACC Men’s Premier Cup will compete in a total of 13 ODI matches. The Asia Cup is also considered as preparation for the ODI World Cup, scheduled to be held in India in October-November.
Arch-rivals India and Pakistan have been grouped alongside Nepal while Sri Lanka, while Bangladesh and Afghanistan are the sides featuring in the other group.
While Sri Lanka are the defending champions of the Asia Cup, India had last won the tournament when it was held in a 50-over format in the UAE in 2018.
The 2023 edition of Asia Cup, which is also the 16th edition of the tournament, will feature two groups, with two teams from each group qualifying for the Super Four stage and the top two teams from the Super Four stage will then meet in the final.
The recent development in the 2023 Asia Cup‘s schedule comes after several reports had claimed in the last few months that the continental tournament could be held in a hybrid model of staging matches, something which also proposed by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi.
As the deadlock over hosting and organising this year’s tournament was yet to be resolved, especially with Pakistan being the host of the 2023 edition of the competition and India not travelling to the country due to political tensions between the two countries.