• Informs Asian Cricket Council of its decision

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) Executive Committee has taken a final decision on the Asia Cup 2022 and decided to host it from 27 August to 11 September despite the ongoing economic crisis in the country. 

The decision of the ExCo has been convened to the Asia Cricket Council (ACC) under whose aegis the tournament will be conducted.

There were some doubts cast by the ACC member countries whether Sri Lanka would be able to host the fifteenth edition of the Asia Cup due to the current state of affairs the country is experiencing with daily power cuts and long queues for gas and fuel which is in short supply.

“We have taken a decision to go ahead with the Asia Cup 2022 as scheduled. The Pakistanis are coming on 6 July (for 2 Tests) and the Lanka Premier League (LPL) also we have planned to start on 31 July. We will go ahead with all those plans,” SLC CEO Ashley de Silva told Daily FT.

Currently, the Australian cricket team is touring the country and have been here for about a month having played eight white ball matches to packed stadiums. The tour will conclude on 12 July with the second and final Test starting at Galle on 8 July. Hosting the Asia Cup means SLC will have the challenging task of handling more than two teams.   

“I know it’s going to be tough but the Sports Minister and the Tourism Minister have both given us the assurance to go ahead with the tournament that they will give their fullest support,” said De Silva.

As regards the fuel shortage in the country De Silva said that SLC has got assurances from the hotels that they will get the fuel for the generators and provide meals for the teams. 

“We are talking to the higher ups and anyway even for this tour (Australia) we have secured some diesel. There is a vehicle parked at Khettarama where we provide diesel for the generators and our staff members, the production teams and the ground rights holder. 

“They make the payment to us. If the staff member is entitled for travel allowance, we’ll provide him the diesel to go around but we will deduct it from his travel allowance,” said De Silva.

“We need to promote tourism into this country, and if we go ahead with the Asia Cup there would be about six teams which will take part and on top of that they will also play a few qualifiers here. Altogether it’s good as it will bring revenue into the country. All these teams would be paid in dollars because there would be operational costs for the ACC, and all the hotels would be paid in dollars.” 

“On top of that all the expenditure during the tour the ACC will take the cost for it. It’s about $ 3-4 million revenue coming into the country. Also, when you play the Asia Cup there would be a distribution fund where all the countries would be entitled for a certain amount. In addition to that, the hotels, the country and the people who are working will all benefit. Even their per diem would be paid in dollars by the ACC. That alone is a huge amount and for their meals they will have to change the dollars which will come to the country.” 

De Silva stated although there are no hosting fees involved, whatever income that comes from holding the event like sale of match tickets etc. will be to SLC’s benefit.

“There would be a lot of Indians and Pakistanis coming as there are two India-Pakistan games in the round robin stage. If you look at the upcoming T20 World Cup (in Australia) the India-Pakistan game has been a sell-out. Within two days the ICC sold out all the tickets.”

SLC will also stand to receive a further $ 2-3 million from the ACC as distribution fees to all its member countries after the Asia Cup.

The tournament will be contested by Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. One more team will join the tournament after the qualifier round. The four teams that will battle against each other in the qualifier round are UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong. One team will get a place as the sixth team in Asia Cup 2022.

De Silva said the venues would most probably be Colombo (R Premadasa Stadium) and Kandy (Pallekele Stadium). “Those are the two locations we are looking at. We have not finalised them, hopefully within the next week or so we will make that call. One group will play their matches in Colombo and the other group in Kandy. The final round games will be played in Colombo.”

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