Pakistan to host 50-over Asia Cup in 2023, confirms PCB chairman Ramiz Raja

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja confirmed on Monday that the Asia Cup 2023 edition will be played in Pakistan.

In an official statement, the cricket board chairman said that the 2023 tournament will be a 50-over format and will be held in September.

“The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has agreed and approved that the 2023 event in Pakistan will be a 50-over competition and will be held in September," said the statement. "This aligns very nicely with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, which will be held in October and November.

“We are looking forward to hosting this tournament in Pakistan and I am confident it will be a well-organised event because this is what the fans want.

“The ACC has also confirmed next year’s tournament in Sri Lanka will be played on a 20-over format and will be a prelude to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in Australia from 16 October to 13 November."

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The statement comes a day after Ramiz's return from Dubai where he attended the annual ACC meeting, besides meeting with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials.

The chairman underscored the need of strengthening the Asian bloc, and taking a unified approach towards situations that the PCB faced last month when New Zealand and England pulled out of their scheduled tours to the country.

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“I would like to see our relationship with other boards and the ACC to be strong so that if there is an issue like we had with the withdrawal of a couple of sides, a strong and joint statement could come out from the ACC platform.

“My message at the ACC was that we should not forget this philosophy and I am optimistic there will be better outcomes in future.”

Meeting with BCCI President

The PCB chief said he had fruitful discussions with the Indian cricket board officials.

“I met with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah on the sidelines of the ACC meetings. We need to create a cricketing bond, while I have also believed that politics should stay away from the sport as much as possible and this has always been our stance.

“A lot of work needs to be done to revitalise Pakistan-India cricket but there needs to be some comfort level between the two boards and then we can see how far we can go. So overall, we had a good discussion,” he added.