Bangladesh set to host Asia Cup 2016

Captains pose with the trophy ahead of the previous edition

In a meeting in Singapore, member countries insisted on Bangladesh hosting the Asia Cup in 2016. The tournament is to start off on 24th February, and the finals being played on the 6th of March. The event will end just a week before the World T20 hits the Subcontinent from 11th March.

Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan announced his country as the official hosts for the Asia Cup on 28th October. They will be hosting this tournament for the third consecutive time. They hosted it earlier in 2012 and 2014 when Sri Lanka and Pakistan were held the crowns respectively.

“Pakistan raised the point that Bangladesh should host the next year’s Asia Cup and everyone agreed” as told to ESPNCricinfo by the BCB president, Nazmul Hassan.

The tournament was first played in 1984 with India and Sri Lanka both winning it for a record 5 times. Next year also, the four test playing nations, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be a part of this Cup with another qualifying nation.

Hassan also emphasized on the younger sides of these nations, he added, “Four Test nations will get direct entry while one Associate nation will come through the qualifying tournament. We also discussed whether there can be more cricket at the Under-19 level between the Asian countries” to cricinfo.

Associate nations like Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Oman and UAE will compete in the qualifying tournament which is due next month in November. The qualifying tournament will be hosted by UAE. Only 1 spot is available for the tournament.

This is the 5th time Bangladesh is hosting this tournament, but this time the tournament has been sculpted to a T20 format. This has been done since the World T20 will be starting off within 5 days of the Asia Cup which will in turn help all the teams to get used to the conditions. Teams will be able to judge better as to where they stand for the World Cup. With similar conditions in India, the competing nations will be looking forward to better preparations for the T20 World Cup.

Sri Lankan’s will enter the tourney the defending champions, but now that it’s changed to the T20 format, it could be anybody’s game next year.