Sri Lanka Cricket explains why Asia Cup 2022 was shifted to UAE

The schedule of the upcoming Asia Cup 2022 was recently announced, where it was confirmed that the 20-over tournament will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Notably, the multi-team competition was originally scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka but was moved out due to the ongoing economic crisis in the country.

“Considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the ACC, after extensive deliberation, has unanimously concluded that it would be appropriate to relocate the tournament from Sri Lanka to the UAE. Every effort was made to host the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, and the decision to shift the venue to the UAE was taken after much deliberation. The UAE will be the new venue while Sri Lanka will continue to retain hosting rights,” the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) said in a statement.

But this wasn’t the only issue, as Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has revealed that the problem of logistical and security concerns were also raised by sponsors and broadcasters that led to the Asia Cup being shifted from the Island nation to UAE. However, Sri Lanka will remain as the host of the competition this year.

“They felt that the situation in Sri Lanka was not conducive to garner the confidence of the stakeholders. Not only the member countries, but a tournament of this magnitude requires other stakeholders, like the broadcasters, sponsors, etc. What they felt was that the negative publicity shown all over the world, with the petrol queues and all that, didn’t help our cause,” said SLC secretary Mohan de Silva as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“Sponsors were finding it difficult to get insured, and the security clearance for broadcast crews to enter Sri Lanka was also an issue. The delegates who wanted to come from the other countries also weren’t prepared to come,” De Silva added.