ACC accepts Pakistan's request to shift U-19 Asia Cup 2017 out of India

It has been quite a long time now since India has competed in a proper bilateral series against their arch-rivals Pakistan. Owing to the disputes in the political relationship between the two countries, the two cricket boards have always been at the opposite ends.

A few years ago, the BCCI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with their Pakistani counterparts. According to the terms mentioned in the MoU, they were to play six series against India within a span of eight years, four of which will be hosted by Pakistan.

Seeing the men in blue not willing to come to the cricket starved nation of Pakistan, PCB even offered to use a neutral venue as their home ground. But all of their pleas went in vain as the BCCI was firm in their decision of not playing a series against Pakistan. From there, the relationship status shared between the two boards has worsened and both acted as an outright opposition to the other.

PCB is even trying to fight the case in court and has already started gathering funds to fight a legal case with BCCI. They have hired highly qualified English lawyers to fight their case. But the matter was not only restricted to the bilateral series as things are getting worse. The 2017 U-19 Asia Cup, which was expected to be hosted in India in November, has now been shifted to Malaysia owing to Pakistan’s complaints.

On Saturday (August 12), the ACC met in Colombo to discuss the issue. The men in green have previously stated that they are not going to send their team to India because of security threats to their players, Interestingly, the issue of lack of security was used by India to avoid the senior team’s bilateral series. ACC has decided to move the tournament out of India. Malaysia will be hosting the important junior team competition.

Asia Cup 2018 also under dark clouds

With the latest decision of ACC, the 2018 Asia Cup of the senior teams is also under dark clouds. In October 2015 meeting, it was decided that the 2018 Asia Cup will be hosted by India. But with the latest turn of events, it is highly probable that Pakistan will not send its team to India, using the same weapon that is citing lack of security. Hence, it will be interesting to see how things pan out when the ACC meets to discuss next year’s mega Asian cricketing event.