Asia Cup will be postponed to 2023 if India make WTC final: Pakistan board chief Mani

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani claims that the Asia Cup 2021 might get postponed to 2023 if India qualify for the final of the World Test Championship. India are in a pole position to seal the place in the final against New Zealand in the WTC final at Lord’s.  

Virat Kohli’s side need to draw or win the last Test match against England in the ongoing series to face NZ. If India lose the Test, then Australia will qualify for the summit on a higher winning percentage. The World Test Championship (WTC) final is slated at Lord’s from June 18-22 and it is expected to clash with the Asia Cup 2021 schedule.  

“The way things look most probably the Asia Cup will be postponed until 2023,” Ehsan Mani said at a media conference. “Asia Cup was set to be held last year, but it got postponed to this year. Right now, it looks like the tournament won`t be going ahead this year as the WTC final is set to go ahead in June. Sri Lanka had said that they would try to host the tournament in June,” Mani told reporters in Karachi.  

Earlier, Pakistan was the host of the Asia Cup but due to political tensions with India, they were forced to surrender the hosting rights to Sri Lanka. The PCB chairman also talked about getting the written assurance from the BCCI by next month for Pakistan players, officials, fans and journalists’ visas for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India. 

“I have informed the board that the BCCI was supposed to give us visa assurances by 31st December but that didn’t happen because their President, Sourav Ganguly was twice hospitalised,” he said.