Merely a day after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ehsan Mani told PTI that it has agreed to cancel this year's Asia Cup, a spokesperson from the board has said it has "heard nothing" from the Asian Cricket Council over the postponement.
"The PCB has heard nothing from the ACC on the postponement of the Asia Cup T20," a PCB spokesman was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
On Wednesday, Ehsan Mani had told PTI that it has agreed to host the event in 2022 and Sri Lanka is now expected to host it next year following the cancellation of this year's edition.
"The Asian Cricket Council is looking at organising it next year. It is too dangerous to host it this year. We had swapped the event with Sri Lanka this year because it is one of the least affected (in South Asia) from the virus," the veteran administrator had told PTI.
In an interesting turn of events, however, Pakistani journalist Saj Sadiq has now quoted the PCB chief as saying: "We are still waiting for the Asian Cricket Council to come back to us regarding the Asia Cup. They are making inquiries about certain things. Maybe, Sourav Ganguly knows something I don't know. But we have not heard anything from the ACC."
ACC President Nazmul Hasan is yet to comment on the issue.
On Wednesday, Ganguly said that the Asia Cup 2020 has been cancelled. "Asia Cup has been cancelled," Ganguly said during an Instagram chat with Vikrant Gupta.
PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan had said that the Asia Cup will be held either in September or October.
A BCCI functionary in the know of developments had told IANS that the PCB could also look at postponing the Pakistan Super League (PSL) next season and host the multi-nation event in that window. The BCCI can then look at adjusting the calendar accordingly and playing in the Asia Cup.
The Asia Cup was set to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in September this year before the PCB agreed to let the Sri Lankan cricket board host the tournament.
(With inputs from IANS)
