Asian Cricket Council confirms Bangladesh as Asia Cup 2014 hosts

Asian Cricket Council committee arrives for a meeting in Colombo on January 4, 2014

The Asian Cricket Council(ACC) has announced that Bangladesh will indeed host the Asia Cup in 2014 from February 25th to March 8th, and also confirmed that Afghanistan will be the fifth team in the competition.

“As of now, the decision has been made that Bangladesh will retain hosting rights of the Asia Cup,” Bangladesh Cricket Board’s(BCB) acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said. “We have given a very good presentation to the ACC board members, and they have been convinced that we can host the tournament. Afghanistan has also been added to the tournament, making it a five-team event and the number of matches has gone up to eleven.”

Although Bangladesh was always the first choice to host the event, violence caused by political strikes and blockades in the capital Dhaka had threatened to move it away from the country. Sri Lanka had earlier expressed willingness to host the Asia Cup should it be necessary.

However, with the BCB having presented a detailed security report to the ACC, the regional body was convinced that Bangladesh could satisfactorily host the event.

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & Afghanistan will take part in the tournament scheduled to be held from 24th February to 7th March.