The Men’s Asia Cup for the 2021 edition has been postponed until FY2023, the announcement coming from Asian Cricket Council (ACC) on 23rd May 2021. The tournament was scheduled to take place in June 2021 in Sri Lanka, but owing to a lack of window in a rejigged cricket calendar that is constantly subject to change amid an evolving COVID-19 situation, the decision has been taken.
The tournament, which was supposed to take place in June 2021 in Sri Lanka, will now be taking place in 2023 and the 2022 edition remains scheduled to be hosted by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
The announcement extends the wait period for team’s from United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Kuwait and Hong Kong, who were scheduled to compete in the Asia Cup qualifiers to claim the lone qualification spot into the main draw of the tournament. Hong Kong took part in the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup after qualifying from the Asia Cup qualifiers held in Malaysia, with a win over United Arab Emirates in the final, with 50-overs the format for the competition. The 2021 edition was to be played in the T20I format, and all the qualifying nations from their respective Eastern (Singapore and Hong Kong) and Western regional (UAE and Kuwait) qualification tournament played the qualifiers in the T20I format.
It has not been announced on how the qualification structure would pan out. On whether the same qualifiers will be carried forward towards the 2022 edition of the tournament or new qualifiers will be taking place for the same needs to be clarified by the ACC in order for the countries to plan and prepare for the events.
