Asia cup 2022 officially shifted to UAE

The Asia Cup 2022 has been moved from Sri Lanka to UAE, the Asian Cricket Council confirmed on Wednesday. Sri Lanka will remain the host of the tournament. It will be played between August 27 to September 11. The decision to move the tournament away from Sri Lanka is taken due to the ongoing economic turmoil. 

Sri Lanka has hosted Australia for bilateral series recently and is currently hosting Pakistan for the Test series but it is difficult for the country to host a multi-team event.

"Considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the ACC after extensive deliberation has unanimously concluded that it would be appropriate to relocate the tournament from Sri Lanka to the UAE. Every effort was made to host the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the decision to shift the venue to the UAE was taken after much deliberation. The UAE will be the new venue while Sri Lanka will continue to retain the hosting rights". - Jay Shah, ACC President.

"The Emirates Cricket board takes great pride in UAE being named the new venue for the Asia Cup. The ECB is always ready to help fellow member boards and the ACC and Sri Lanka cricket have our Full support. We have the required infrastructure in place and look forward to welcoming the teams to the UAE". - Khalid Al Zarooni, Emirates Cricket Board vice-chairman.

"We were really looking forward to hosting our Asian neighbors in Sri Lanka for the much anticipated Asia Cup. While I fully standby ACC's decision to shift the Asia Cup to the UAE considering the current context and the magnitude of the event, Sri Lanka cricket will work closely with the ACC and Emirates Cricket board to ensure that we still have an exciting edition of the Asia Cup". - Shammi Silva, SLC chief.

The tournament will be played in the T20 format.  The Asia Cup 2022 will start with qualifiers between UAE, Kuwait, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The winner of the qualifiers will go on to the main tournament and play  India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. India won the last edition of the Asia Cup in 2018.