Sourav Ganguly confirms Asia Cup 2020 has been cancelled a day before council meeting

In a major update on Wednesday, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has confirmed that upcoming Asia Cup 2020 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The confirmation comes even before the scheduled Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting on July 9. The tournament has been a tug of war between India and Pakistan after the Men in Blue refused to tour the neighbours as Pakistan had acquired the hosting rights. 

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'IPL important for Indian cricket'

In an Instagram Live Session with Vikrant Gupta, the BCCI President confirmed that the Asia Cup 2020 has been cancelled. He added that it is difficult to say which will be India's first international series after the COVID forced break and highlighted that the BCCI is monitoring things monthly. Ganguly also added that if the T20 World Cup is cancelled, then the BCCI will try everything to stage the IPL in India as it is important for Indian cricket. 

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Earlier, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had rejected any speculation that the Asia Cup 2020 will get scrapped in favour of BCCI to organize the IPL. In a recent media conference, the PCB CEO spoke about the prospects of Asia Cup 2020 and any possible cricketing commitments in place of the T20 World Cup, should the showpiece event gets shifted to a later date. Wasim Khan said that since Pakistan cricket team is set to tour England for three Tests and three T20Is in August, the players will return back to the country on September 2, i.e. in time for the proposed Asia Cup 2020.

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T20 World Cup postponed? 

Meanwhile, Australian media has reported that the T20 World Cup has been postponed. and that the official announcement will be made on Friday. The sixth edition of the T20 cricket's showpiece event was originally scheduled to take place in October-November this year but according to various reports, the tournament might be called off due the ongoing global pandemic and might be rescheduled Down Under in 2022. 

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