Asia Cup 2023: Pakistan Cricket Board threatens to pull out of ACC if…

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is trying to convince the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to allocate just four round games in the country or else they would have no option but to pull out of the continental body. This came in a desperate bid to host some matches of the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

PCB chairman Najam Srthi's 'Hybrid Model' of Pakistan playing its home games apart from India's encounter, in their own country, has been rejected by other member nations, according to the news agency PTI. 

In turn, PCB has rejected the idea of hosting Asia Cup games in Sri Lanka. 

A reliable source close to the cricket board informed PTI, “Yes, Najam Sethi as part of the plan B of the hybrid model proposed by us for the Asia Cup has informed the ACC this week in Dubai that PCB would be satisfied hosting four games at home.”

He said Sethi had also conveyed to the ACC in Dubai that if even this plan B of the PCB was rejected by ACC members then Pakistan would neither play in the Asia Cup and also withdraw from the Asian Cricket Council.

Sethi has proposed a Pakistan versus Nepal match and Afghanistan versus Bangladesh, Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka v Bangladesh matches in Pakistan, as per sources. 

The source also added that Sethi had told the ACC officials that PCB would be happy to play most of its remaining matches in Dubai and the tournament's majority games can be held in Dubai including the final, PTI reported. 

"The one challenge now facing the ACC and us as hosts is that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and India are insisting the event shouldn't be held in UAE in September as the weather is very hot," the source said.

"In the recent past, BCCI has organized the entire (half) of IPL in UAE between September and November (in 2021) while the last two Asia Cups have also been held in UAE during the same period," the PCB source added. 

(With PTI inputs)