Asia Cup
:''Not to be confused with the football
Asian CupThe
Asia Cup is an international
cricket tournament. It was conceived in
1983 when the
Asian Cricket Council was created as a measure to promote goodwill between
Asian countries. It was originally scheduled to be held every two years. The first edition was held in
1984 in
Sharjah,
UAE where the council's offices were based (until
1995). The
International Cricket Council has ruled that all games played for the Asia Cup have official
one-day international status.
Indian cricket team has lifted the Asia cup four times, the most amongst the competing asian countries.
The ACC have announced that the tournament will be held biennially from 2008 onwards.
[Asia Cup to be held biennially, from Cricinfo, retrieved 22 June 2006]The first edition of the Asia Cup was held in 1984 in Sharjah, UAE, the location of the headquarters of the newly formed Asian Cricket Council. The first match was
Pakistan vs the new ICC member
Sri Lanka.
Mohsin Khan faced the first ball of the tournament. The final was played between
India and Pakistan and the cup was lifted by
India.
The second edition was held in Sri Lanka, the first multi-national cricket series to be held there. India had pulled out of the tournament due to soured relations with Sri Lanka after a controversial series in Sri Lanka the previous year in which the umpires allegedly made wrong decisions to favour the home side leading to Sri Lanka winning their first ever Test match.
Sri Lanka lifted the cup beating Pakistan.
The third edition was held in
Bangladesh and won by
India defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
The fourth edition was held in India. Pakistan had pulled out of the tournament which helped
India retain its hold on the Cup defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
The fifth edition took the series back to Sharjah after 11 years. India and Sri Lanka made it to the final by virtue of better runrate than Pakistan as all three teams had equal points after preliminary round. For the third successive time in the Asia Cup,
India defeated Sri Lanka in the final.
For the fourth consecutive time, it was India and Sri Lanka in the final but this time a confident Sri Lanka beat India easily.
The 2000 Asia Cup was held in
Dhaka, Bangladesh and won by
Pakistan defeating Sri Lanka in the final.
See also: 2004 Asia CupThe eighth edition of Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka after a gap of 4 years. Sri Lanka beat India to win the cup.
See also: 2008 Asia CupThe ninth edition of the Asia Cup will be held in Pakistan in April 2008. The format sees two groups of three sides, where each side in each group plays each other once. The top two teams in each group play in knock-out semi-finals, with a one-off final to follow.
Group A consists of
Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka and the
United Emirates. Group B consists of
India,
Oman and
Pakistan.
Asian Test Championship*
Schedule for the ninth Asia Cup
